Fallen
by Severed Sorrow
Summary: I am a 19 year old girl. I am an American. I live in Japan. I snooped in a well. The well sent me back in time. I was saved from a demon by a demon. Normal teenage stuff, right? The best part is that it's my job to decide the fate of the world, and I can't even decide the fate of my own life. OC/Sesshomaru
1. Chapter 1

It took all of my strength and will power to keep myself from falling to my knees and sobbing. Tears stung my eyes, threatening to roll down my cheeks and splatter onto the cold cement that lay complacently beneath me. What was the point in anything? In caring? In going to school? It all seemed so pointless if there was a possibility that there would be no tomorrow for me.

Taking in a deep breath, I walked out of the main office of my college, hoping to head home and get some studying done. The stress of my classes were beginning to take its toll on me; I hadn't been able to deal with stress very well since I had moved up to this god-forsaken place. I didn't like how it poured rain all of the time (at least in the miserable interval between winter and the end of spring), nor did I like the fact that there was no beach. I came from the sunny state of Florida in the States, where the Gulf of Mexico was literally seconds from my house. There was an ocean in Tokyo, yes, but the water was greasy and murky, and the sand no where near as soft and white as the kind I was used to.

The cold, wet air stung my face as I trudged home. I knew I should have brought a coat, but I hated wearing such heavy things when all I was used to was flip-flops, shorts and a tank-top year round. I knew that the first thing my friend would do is yell at me for not wearing one, claiming it would get me sick and—because everyone in Tokyo lived in such close quarters—getting everyone else sick as well.

Rain began pouring down from the overcast sky. The droplets hit my skin as if they were needles, sending shivers of cold through my body. Just my luck to not have an umbrella, either.

I ducked into an alleyway between two apartment buildings. The metal stairs that trellised up their sides provided some shelter from the downpour. I crossed my bare arms, as if it would hold in my warmth. My pants and t-shirt were already soaked through, and I didn't even bother acknowledging the disastrous state of my hair (not like I ever bothered doing anything special to it anyway.)

With a sigh, I trudged farther back into the alley to see if I could find any more permanent shelter that would allow me to take out my phone without it being ruined by the rain. The alley came to a split that ran along a dilapidated wooden fence. The rain was so heavy, I could barely see three feet in front of me, so I chose to go left at random.

Eventually, there came a break in the fence that opened out into a standard yard-sized area. The grass was severely overgrown and dominated by weeds, so it was obviously abandoned. On the far side of the yard, barely visible through the blue haze of rain and growing darkness, I could see a little wooden shed that looked like it was about to fall in on itself. It was better than nothing, so I decided it would have to do.

Inside, it was more spacious than I at first thought. It was almost completely empty, save for a wooden box in the center. The box looked like some termites had started to eat away at it, small chunks missing from various areas. Taking out a lighter to get a better look at it, I could see that the lid was held down by rusty nails. The wood was so spongy from years of neglect, though, I could easily just pull the lid off in pieces with my nails. And of course, I am a curious person, so that's exactly what I began doing.

Snapping the lighter shut, throwing myself back into semi-darkness, I began chipping away the top of the box, scraping the spongy wood with my fingernails. In less than five minutes, the entire lid lay in tiny splintered pieces in the dirt around my feet. I quickly grabbed my lighter and flicked it back on, holding it above the box to see what was inside.

To my surprise, it was not a box—it was an old dry well. My friend had told me that there were wells like these all over Japan. They are supposedly sacred, and you were supposed to drop offerings into them and make prayers. Why would they nail one of these shut, though?

A rope ladder trailed down the inside of the well. It didn't look as old as everything else here, probably because the lid helped preserve it so well. Though, if offerings were thrown down the well, then maybe there were still some coins down there?

Solely to satisfy my greediness, I threw a leg over the side and started my way down as soon as my foot found a rung. It wasn't very deep at all, and the cobblestones that supported the walls could easily help me make my way out of the well should the ladder break. At the bottom, I shuffled my boots to move around the dirt, hoping to see something shine in the light of my lighter. After a few moments of this, I decided there was nothing to be found, and turned to start my way back up the rope ladder. But there was no ladder. I'd just used it though, hadn't I?

I did a three-sixty to examine the walls of the well. There definitely was no ladder. Where the hell had it gone?

"I hate exercise," I mumbled as I grabbed the cobblestones to climb my way out. Indeed I did hate exercise. Most people could tell that by my size. I was not as big as some people from America, but it was evident I was overweight. I liked myself that way, though.

Huffing and puffing, I rolled myself over the edge of the well and onto the ground. Damp, dewy grass met my face, and even though I was already soaking wet from the rain, it made me spring up. Because the floor inside of the shed was dirt, not grass. Unless grass had magically grown within the little hutch within the past five minutes, there was something wrong here. And, as I looked around, there definitely was something wrong.

For starters, the spongy wood of the well had gone from being, well, spongy, to being rock hard and brand new-looking. The dilapidated shed had been sucked away into oblivion somehow, as there was only a shelter above the well. It, too, looked brand new. It was even decorated with paper ornaments hanging on fresh rope. The fence surrounding the hut, as well as the buildings of the city, were completely obliterated, a large forest in its place. I could tell by the shade of light that the sun was setting. The rays were still strong, though, and they peeked around rain clouds that dotted the sky to shine through the trees onto the forest floor, turning everything a peaceful shade of orange and making all of the dew sparkle. The fresh smell of earth and wetness let me know that it had recently finished raining. It was truly beautiful here, the way everything glistened, the way that the smoggy odor of the city had been replaced with the crisp, fresh scent of rain and sunshine.

The chilly air began to make my body feel numb. The only thing that hadn't changed was the temperature, and if I didn't find somewhere to get dry, I would fall ill. I took off my backpack and dumped out my school supplies and replaced only what I thought would help. I took one small book, in case I needed to light it to help start a fire. I put in my lighter, as well, and two pencils and a notebook of paper. I also put in my thermos that was still full of water, and a granola bar I had neglected at lunch time. It wasn't much, but it was certainly better than nothing. I also came across my cellphone—no service—and decided I should keep it in case I ran into a signal.

I made my way west, towards the setting sun. I didn't know where I was, but I knew that going towards the ocean meant being out in the open, and who knows what could find me and eat me out in the open. Of course, as far as I knew, Japan had no predators but the people that inhabited it.

Eventually the trees broke onto a small stream that was no deeper than halfway up my calves. I could see fish swimming beneath the water's surface, and there was a tree across the way with an opening that indicated a hollow trunk. It would be a perfect place for me to rest, and the fish would provide an easy food source—not to mention that there was fresh water!

I sat down to take my boots off so I could wade across the stream-no need to get them even more soaked when they were the only protection I had for my delicate feet. However, just as I unlaced the first one, a deep, menacing growl came from across the stream. It was loud, and echoed through the trees. I could only freeze, hoping that it had the sight and brain of a tyrannosaurus. I dared to raise my eyes, scanning the shore of the stream for any movement. I could see nothing but the water of the babbling brook and the trees that lined it.

Again, a growl. It was lower this time, with an edge to it that made it sound like a hissing cat. The wind picked up, rustling the leaves of the trees like a breeze that signals the beginning of a storm. It blew from behind me, surely carrying my scent over to whatever lay in wait beyond the treeline of the opposite shore. A few meters behind the treeline, there was a deafening snap!, followed by a large tree toppling over and another low, drawn-out growl and a hiss. There was only one thing I could think: oh, shit son!

I immediately retied my boot into a knot, not bothering to make it look pretty, and grabbed my bag and booked it. I heard a loud splash!, a giveaway that whatever it was had picked up my scent, and it wanted me. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, I thought with each step I took. It sounded big, hearing its feet beat against the earth as it tried to sniff out which way I was headed. More trees cracked and fell as the beast charged its way through the forest behind me. Hissing and yowling reached me as it voiced its desperate attempt to follow me, the echoes getting ever nearer and louder. Finally, I decided it would catch me anyway, and found a tree with low-lying branches and scrambled up as high as I dared go. Finally, what had been chasing me appeared below and jerked to a stop as my scent ran cold.

It was indeed huge—nearly the size of the entire three bedroom apartment I shared with my friend. Not to mention it looked like a cat that had been thrown into a vat of radioactive material. It's face kind of resembled one of those Egyptian hairless cats, though the baldness of it's head tapered into a coat of thick coal-gray fur. Its maw hung open as it panted, razor sharp teeth protruding out that prevented it from closing its mouth all the way. The body looked misshapen. The only thing I could think of with the same shaped body was a giraffe—high at the neck with a sharp downward slant on the back, and a level belly. The paws were humongous, bigger than my whole body, with claws of proportionate size.

The way its head turned toward me, slowly and knowingly, made my heart stop. Its eyes bore into me, immobilizing me with fear. Its irises were red and seemed to glow evilly as its black pupils grew and consumed me with hatred and hunger. At 19 years old, I can honestly say I had never been so scared in my entire life.

This is it, I thought. This is the end. I'm going to die.

The monster turned around and kicked the tree I was in with its hind legs. The tree was easily uprooted and both it and I were flung into the air at a sharp angle. I don't know how high we went, but we both went at least thirty feet. The tree landed not too far away from where it was uprooted, but I went farther. The second I hit the ground, I knew I had broken something. Upon impact, my vision went white and the encroaching numbness brought on by the cold and the wet only made the break of my leg seem that much more painful. I was only vaguely aware of the howl of victory from the beast as it hovered above me, its saliva dripping all over me at the scent of my blood.

I barely even noticed that suddenly the beast's heavy breathing was replaced by screeches of pain and anguish, and then silence. The only thing that alerted me that someone was carrying me was the severe pain that shot from my leg as I was lifted. My screams could surely alert more of those beasts. The softness of my savior's clothing didn't interest me, nor did their wonderful, earthy scent. I noticed the warmth of their embrace, the big, soft hands cupping my mouth that muffled my screams, and that was it. And then there was darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Static, like from an untuned radio, filled my ears as I stumbled into consciousness. It was quiet, though, like the volume was only turned on high enough so that it was just an annoying background noise. Every so often, broken words could be heard between it, but it wasn't loud enough for me to make out.

I kept my eyes closed as I evaluated what was going on. Aside from the broken radio in the back of my mind, the only other noise was the crackle and warmth of a fire that I must have been laying close to, and the scraping of leaves as a soft breeze blew by. I could feel it as it raked my face, and shifted slightly so that it snuggled into the plush fur that surrounded me.

All in all, I was warm and comfortable. I remembered the pain I felt in the seconds before losing consciousness, how someone had been carrying me away from the beast. What had happened to that horrible thing? Was it still around? Maybe it had killed me and I was dead.

No, if I was dead, there wouldn't be a pulsing discomfort (not really painful, though) in my right leg, which now felt bound.

I groggily opened my eyes, turning my head so that I faced the sky again. A moan escaped my lips as the light of the fire met me-it seemed brighter than the sun at first-in the darkness of the night. How long had I been out? Since it was night, perhaps just a few hours. The sun had been setting the last time I was awake.

The static in the back of my mind became a little more excited, a little louder, though I still couldn't make out any of the broken words. It was like someone turning the knob and trying to tune it.

I used what little strength I had in my arms to push myself up into a semi-sitting position, taking great care not to move my hurt leg. It was a serious effort to sit myself up—I was so weak, I could barely hold up my head. I was starving, too, my stomach making loud protests of my neglect of it. Being a girl of bigger size, I was not quite partial of going without food for more than a few hours.

Running my hands over my hair, I realized I had been groomed in my unconsciousness. It had most certainly been washed and carefully brushed, which I never really did. When my hair was brushed correctly, it would fall into beautiful golden ringlets from my scalp to my shoulder blades. I hated them, so I tended to let my hair stay relatively grungy. But now they were perfect, maybe a little flat in the back from sleeping.

After giving my eyes a good rub to wake myself up a little bit, I surveyed my surroundings. The sky was pitch black, with no stars. It was probably cloudy, and with how cold my bare arms were, I deduced that they carried snow in them. I was still among the trees, but who knows how far from where the attack occurred. The clearing I lay in was very small—there was only a six or seven foot radius around the fire, which was not too big and situated in the very center of the clearing. It was well made, though, with a pile of tinder on the opposite side of the fire. I, myself, was placed almost directly next to it to keep warm, and the fur that surrounded me was a boa, like the feather ones people put around their neck, though this was was absolutely huge. It was about as big around as a person of standard weight, and it was long enough to circle around my entire body as I lay there with a little left over to cover my legs. Its scent was strange though, like an animal that was bathed with flowery shampoo. It was subtle, though, so more comforting than overpowering.

Pain suddenly overcame me, like someone was slowly wriggling a dull knife in the broken flesh of my calf. I cried out—I don't know how loudly, maybe it was simply a quiet and seductive sounding moan or even a scream that would attract every beast in a ten mile radius—and reached for my leg. A hand intercepted my own, a harsh grip around my wrist. I looked at the owner, not really comprehending what he or she really looked like. Long light hair, bangs hanging carelessly over bright yellow or golden eyes, pale skin and colorful looking clothing. That's all I could capture of the person through the pain.

Still holding my hand at bay-my other hand busy supporting my weight so I could stay sitting up-the strange person began to unbind the wrapping around my leg and rub it lightly with a cold paste. It stung like a son of a bitch, and I sobbed loudly until they re-wrapped my leg.

I grit my teeth against the pain and looked at my savior again. This time I took him in completely. His skin was absolutely flawless and pale. His hair seemed to be a silver light that bordered him, tucked behind his pointy ears, and his eyes were like pools of melted gold. They were cold, emotionless and calculating. He wore a type of kimono I saw in pictures in a museum once, the kind that wealthy Japanese lords used to wear. Over it, he wore black stone armor with spiked plate trim at the top of the chest piece. He also had war paint markings on his face-maroon stripes on his cheek and a midnight blue crescent moon on his forehead.

He turned his attention from my leg onto my face. Our eyes connected briefly before he studied the rest of me. The static in the back of my head became even louder, though still the words were broken. I thought I heard the words "food" and "stream", though for all I knew it could have been something completely different.

The man moved away from me slowly and gracefully. I studied him as he turned his back from me to face a tree he must have been sleeping against. A few moments passed, and he finally turned back around and crouched next to me, holding out a small wooden bowl of a dark red liquid. At first I thought it was wine, but it didn't smell anything like it, and it was much too viscous. The aroma it gave off was so familiar, I just couldn't place it.

After realizing I wasn't going to take it, he pressed the rim of the bowl to my lips to try to encourage me to drink. I parted my lips and almost let the liquid enter my mouth, but it hit me like a train why I recognized the smell and I immediately pushed it away from me. He was trying to make me drink blood! What the hell?

"It will make you heal," he said. As soon as he spoke, it was like I was under a spell. His voice was deep, but smooth and graceful like his movements. The way the words rolled off of his perfectly shaped lips almost made me convulse with lust. I squeezed my eyes so hard that it hurt, snapping me out of the trance-like state his voice threw me into.

"No," I croaked.

He set the bowl down and situated himself onto his knees. He was quite tall, more than a foot taller than I was, though I hadn't noticed when he had walked away a few moments earlier. He put one arm around me, which almost threw me back into a trance, and lifted his opposite wrist to his lips. As he opened his mouth—I saw fangs, and with his ears it made me wonder who (and what) he was—and scraped his teeth across his flesh. Blood trickled thickly out of the wound and dripped onto the grass. He moved the fur boa out of the way so it didn't stain, and held his wrist up to my face. His arm held me firmly in place (he was much stronger than his thin stature let on), so I could only turn my face away from the thick smell of iron that radiated from his wrist. In a swift movement, he raised his arm slightly so that he could immobilize my head by grabbing my chin with his hand. He then shoved his wrist to my lips and forced his blood into my mouth.

I've tasted blood before, but it most certainly didn't taste anything like this. His blood...it was like syrup. Sweet and hot, it felt good in my mouth. It felt even better sliding down my throat. I could feel it hit my stomach, the warmth spreading through my body. I wanted an endless supply of it, to drink only this for the rest of my life. And, most prominently, it made me want his body. I was torn between the two feelings: of wanting to latch my mouth to his wound and never let go, and to tear myself away from it and rip his clothes off.

I don't know how long I was desperately sucking his blood out, but he finally wrenched his wrist away, leaving me a little flustered and desperately wanting more. The static in my mind seemed to have cleared up considerably, and had grown louder. I realized that it was the man's voice, sentences being said at light speed, barely comprehensible.

"That felt nice. I like that. How long will it take? Why am I doing this? Why do I feel this way? This is wrong. I should leave her here. I can't leave her here. I need to keep her with me. I need her. I need her. Why?"

For a split second, I thought that maybe it was my own thoughts saying that I needed to leave him, but I couldn't...I needed him. I knew I did. I didn't care what it took, but I didn't want to leave him. I suddenly felt a desperation—what if he left me after I got better?

He can't leave me alone. I don't know where I am. I have no way to defend myself against the monsters that lurk out there. What would I do? And him...he's perfect. I can't live without him with me. His blood that tastes so good, the way he smells, so comforting...the way his arm was around me, strong but gentle. I love him. I need him.

I snapped myself to attention, realizing that our eyes had been locked the entire time. I saw the corners of his mouth twitch upward ever so slightly, and I realized that he must be trying to hold back a laugh from the stupid look on my face, and the blood smeared on it. Or who knows, maybe I was only imagining it. The static that had returned to my mind muddled my thoughts.

"I...I'm Stacey," was the only intelligible thing I could mutter.

The man studied my face a long time, probably trying to decide if it would even be worth telling me his name. I probably looked like I was tripping out or something. "Sesshomaru," he finally said, almost reluctantly.

Sesshomaru immediately shoved his hands beneath me and lifted me. I was not used to anyone being able to carry my weight, since I was a pretty big girl, and wrapped my arms around his neck as tight as I could without outright choking him. I felt him shiver a little bit as I dug my face into his neck, but without looking at his expression, I couldn't tell if it was because he was repulsed by the action or what.

He carried me through the woods. I don't know how he could see in such complete darkness, but he obviously knew where he was going with confident steps. After only a few moments, we stopped. He gently lay me in the grass and grabbed the bottom of my shirt, pulling it up as if to take it off. I squeaked and pushed myself away from him. If I had not been sitting, I would have fallen into the hot spring that my arm dove into. I realized he was helping me undress so I could get washed off. But it still made me nervous for him to be taking my clothes off. I mean, he wasn't a doctor. He was some strange man that had saved me from a beast.

I was going to open my mouth and say I could manage on my own, but the truth was I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to get my jeans off by myself.

"I have bathed you once already," he said coldly. "There is nothing you have that I have not seen before."

By how clean and groomed I was, I didn't doubt his words. I was a little angry that he had undressed me without my permission. No one, not even my parents, has seen me naked. Not since I was four or five, anyhow. Now I felt violated! Even if it was by a beautiful man such as himself.

Sesshomaru held his wrist back to my mouth. He had reopened his wound, though it was now a much smaller gash to moderate how much I consumed. I immediately latched onto him, sucking as hard as I could to get as much as possible before he cut me off. When he pulled away, my mind was fuzzy and made my resistance nonexistent.

He grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head. I realized that my bra was gone, and vaguely wondered if he had raped me in unconsciousness. After he had gently pulled off my jeans and noticed that my underwear was gone as well, I decided that I would feel different if he had. I still felt like a virgin...but there was still the mystery of my missing undergarments.

When he slid his arms under my naked body to lower me into the spring, the feeling of his bare skin against mine made the lust come back ten-fold. It was all I had not to stay latched to him when he let me go. He paused with his hands on my shoulders for a moment. I was breathing heavily in the attempt to stop myself from pulling him in with me, and for a moment I thought he was worried that I was having a heart attack or something.

Before I knew it, he was sliding in next to me. He pressed his naked body against mine, so that I was pinned against the muddy side of the hot spring. He slid his hands over my skin until he got to my thighs. He lifted them up onto either of his hips and pressed his pelvis into mine. He was big, and most definitely hard. I could feel its full shape on my abdomen with how firmly he held himself against me.

Sesshomaru ran his lips down the side of my face and neck, tilting back my head to get under my chin. I moaned with pleasure. The one thing that always got me was my neck being kissed, so it was then that I stopped trying to hold myself back from him completely. I mean, at first he had caught me off guard, but it was on now.

I clenched his arms tightly to give myself some leverage and rubbed myself against his member. He stiffened and growled, digging his sharp nails into my thighs. It felt like they broke the skin, but I didn't care. Sesshomaru then shifted, keeping me lifted to him with only one arm (which I was astounded by—he must be stronger than any person on earth) and using the other to brace himself on the edge of the spring. He was breathing hard now, with a look on his face that told me he was trying not to get too involved.

"The blood makes you feel this way," he said as steadily as he could. "I just wanted to see how intensely it affects a human."

"What are you," I manage to ask. He felt so perfect against me—I wanted him so badly.

"I am like the monster I saved you from," he whispered in my ear, proceeding to run his fangs over my neck. He seemed to enjoy the way it made me gasp and moan. "I am a dog demon."

It was then that I decided he was either crazy or that I was no longer in Tokyo, or both. But he was so seductive, I wanted him so much, I didn't care one bit.

Sesshomaru ran his fangs over my neck again, and I found myself wanting him to bite down. I knew he wouldn't, though, so I lifted my neck so that they punctured my flesh. He jerked his head back and in the darkness I could see his golden eyes glare down at me. He seemed furious at first, but his expression soften almost immediately as the taste of my blood sank into him. Bending back down, he gently cupped his lips around the wound and sucked. The more he sucked, the more pleasure I felt. I found myself moaning loudly, running my hands all over him in an attempt to take him all in—his tight muscles, his smooth skin, his warmth.

With one last lick, he pulled back and panted. I pressed my lips against his, and he kissed ferociously back, like he had been starved of this kind of attention. He was about to put himself in me when he paused, to my absolute horror. "We need to stop." He pulled away, gently setting me down on a ledge beneath the water so to not put weight on my bad leg.

"No, I need you," I said desperately, holding out my arms to him.

"You must rest. You are weak. This stress will not help you heal."

"Yes, it will!" I cried, trying to think of some remote reason that having him would help. "Exercise is good for you!"

He looked like he was trying to keep from laughing again. "I will watch you to make sure nothing happens to you. Clean yourself and we will go back so you can sleep."

Sesshomaru climbed gracefully out of the spring, and I kept my eyes glued to him. Even in the darkness, I could see his chiseled body, unscathed except for a large scar on his left bicep. He was still hard, as well, and imagined that it would hurt to have him in me anyway with how big he was. Finally, after he pulled on the last of his outfit, I decided that I was defeated, and washed myself. Afterward, he helped me dress, and we headed back to our fire where he gently placed me back in the cozy embrace of the fur.

I had a lot of questions, but I knew that soon the pain would come back, and I wanted to be asleep until then, until I would get to have his sweet blood once more. But a few things more than anything stuck in the back of my mind before I went back into a dreamless sleep:

Was he really a demon, or was he crazy? Where was I? And what the heck was he on for his blood to make me feel like that?


	3. Chapter 3

The pain of my leg woke me up. It was nowhere near as bad as the last time I was awake, though it still hurt a lot.

I lay there in the gray light of the rising sun, shadows barely beginning to form around me. The fire was low, almost to cinders, but it still gave off enough warmth to fend off the cold that hung in the air. Sesshomaru lay against a tree opposite the fire from me. His eyes were closed and his breathing slow and even, obviously asleep.

Biting my lip to keep me from groaning at the pain in my leg, I went over what I remembered of the last bit of my waking hours. My mind was much clearer than it was then, and I couldn't help but wonder if what Sesshomaru told me was true. Was he really a demon? He couldn't be. There was no such thing. No way in hell! And speaking of hell, could that possibly be where I was? Maybe. I always imagined hell would be an eternity of immense pain. But then again, I also always imagined flames everywhere. And this place was no where near as hot as hell, that's for damn sure. Maybe hell was freezing over! What luck it would be for me to be stuck in hell's ice age.

Smiling at how funny I believed myself to be, I moved on to Sesshomaru's blood. He fed me his blood. I drank blood. And I liked it! What was I now? A vampire? Not to my knowledge. I couldn't help but think of all the vampire books I read (my favorite being Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy" series) and compare the feeling I had to the feeling described when a vampire would feed in some of them. I know that in a few of them the description was almost dead on, and was delighted that I got to experience it. I had always wanted to have that feeling. Maybe that was what vampires tasted when they drank blood? MAYBE I WAS A VAMPIRE, FOR REAL?

Then I decided no, because I had absolutely no fantasy-like qualities of vampires whatsoever. I was now just some freak mortal who liked blood. But I had tasted blood before, and it was nothing like the liquid orgasm Sesshomaru had. Which brings me to another point: what did his blood do to me? What was that? The way I acted...it reminded me of how my mother acted when she was high on meth. I promised myself I would never, ever be like that. I would never get addicted to some drug. If his blood really had that effect on me...was his blood a drug? I didn't want to lose myself to that addiction. Even now, the taste, the high it gave me, I wanted it. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced I needed it.

I never wanted to taste his blood again. I would die before he forced it into me. I was not going to be sucked into what my mother had—I wasn't going to lose myself to a substance that made me feel good. I wasn't going to let it make me abandon my children like she did. I wasn't going to push away my family like she did. I wasn't going to let it make me into a completely different person. I want to have lots of children and be the best mother in the world, like I used to think she was before she tried to get me arrested with her. I want to find the perfect man to raise them with me. And to live in the States with my family, taking care of my grandmother who meant more to me than my own life.

I missed my family...

"Is it the pain?" Sesshomaru asked suddenly, nearly making me crap myself.

"What?" I croaked, trying to decode the look in his eyes. If his face was a bit more expressive, I wouldn't have so much trouble reading him. His eyes showed emotion, but they were so well guarded I could barely tell. I at least knew he was concerned on some level.

"What are the tears for?"

"Oh, ash from the fire got in my eyes," I managed to choke out, vigorously wiping my face off with my sleeve. Thinking about my grandma had made me start crying-it always did.

He stared at me skeptically put didn't press any further. Instead, he moved closer to me and began to bring his wrist to his mouth, and knew what he was going to do.

"I don't need it," I blurted out before he bit down, making him pause. I hesitated, wondering if I really wanted to cut myself off from something so amazing...but my mom popped back in my head and it reinforced my resolution to abstain. "My leg, it's much better now. It doesn't hurt at all."

My voice betrayed me though, like it always does when I lie big time. My leg pain even flared, as if to punish me for telling such a bold-faced lie, and it made me wince.

"You need it to heal," he said firmly. "Demon blood makes wounds heal much more quickly. Without it, your leg may not heal right. You may not be able to walk on it again if you don't drink."

He made such a convincing argument...but I couldn't. If I drank too much, I would get so addicted, I would lose myself. "No," I said more firmly.

"Please," he said almost dejectedly. Was that a hint of desperation I heard? "I don't want to force you."

"Why do you care anyway?" I asked harshly.

He opened his mouth to give a reply, his face turning angry, but he quickly calmed himself. Swiftly, he reopened the wound on his wrist and tried shoving it in my mouth, but I turned my head away from him. He sighed, climbing on top of me and pinning both of my arms down with his knees. He used his unwounded hand to keep my head straight like he did before, the pressure on my cheeks forcing my mouth open.

I latched onto his wrist for dear life. There couldn't be any better sensation than what I felt when his blood trickled down my throat. I was going to become my mother...and I didn't care. As long as I had this blood, had Sesshomaru here with me, nothing would matter.

Surprisingly, I was the one who cut myself off. I wouldn't let it control me. It wasn't addiction if I could take it in moderation, was it? And it's not like it was bad for my body like drugs were. It healed me.

The blood hazed over my mind though, and I knew I wasn't thinking straight. I let my eyes lock with Sesshomaru's, and it was like it formed a link that emotions from both of us streamed across, reaching one another. He liked me taking his blood as much as I liked receiving it. The feeling I received in the process was a mutual one, though his thoughts were naturally clearer than mine. He was still on top of me, and I felt his hardness on my stomach. I hated that...not because I didn't really want him. But because last time he kept it pressed against me, but didn't give it to me. I hated a tease.

Sesshomaru lightened the pressure he put on my arms so I could pull them free. I immediately reached my hand for his dick. I. Wanted. It. I was not going to let him tease me like this forever. It may have only been the second time, but I learn from my mistakes the first time and don't let it happen again.

His eyes widened and he stiffened, clearly not expecting me to be so direct with him. He knew by the look on my face that I was completely serious, and that I wasn't going to let him get away.

He loosened my tight grip on it so he could remove his armor and shirt, though he left his pants on. It pissed me off a little bit. I was German, and therefore impatient. He found the look on my face amusing though—I could see a smile in his eyes even if he wasn't actually wearing one. He removed my shirt as well, though, and I became conscious that he was looking directly at my breasts. I absolutely hated the way my breasts looked—they were nothing like the well-shaped ones I always saw in movies. They were ugly to me, especially since I was so pale that my skin was almost completely see-through.

I tried to cover my chest with my arms, but he grabbed them and held them above my head with only one hand. He used his other hand to trace markings on my breasts with his nails, spending a particularly long amount of time on my nipples. After he felt satisfied, he bent down and began using his mouth on them, which I didn't like at all. It wasn't that the sensation was horrible, I just felt like it would give him a closer look at all of my flaws, and that they would turn him off.

Not like it even mattered, because almost as soon as he began sucking on my nipples, a voice carried from not too far away within the woods. "Lord Sesshomaru! I have brought them to you, as you asked!"

As Sesshomaru hurriedly put both of our clothes back on, I felt like I was going to kill someone. I have never been more furious in my life. Now I knew how some people felt, never being able to get a piece of ass when it dangled right in front of their face.

Sesshomaru just put an arm in one of his sleeves when a little green imp-like creature bound into the clearing. Thankfully he had put my shirt on first so that I wasn't revealing any of my lady bits, but the imp's eyes fell heavily on the sight of Sesshomaru pulling on the shirt of his kimono. "I-I am sorry, Lord Sesshomaru!" The imp fell to its knees, throwing his forehead into the grass in a deep bow. "F-Forgive me for interrupting! If I would have known, I would have taken a detour to allow you more time!"

"Enough, Jaken," Sesshomaru nearly spat. His voice was cold and menacing as he spoke to him. It wasn't really anger, at least not for the interruption. It was more like he always spoke this way to the little imp. It cut me a little to hear him speak so harshly. Sesshomaru was not necessarily warm the times he spoke to me, but it was most certainly not cold and hating like what I had just heard. "Where are they? You said you had brought them."

"Yes, my Lord!" The imp jumped to its feet, its head still bowed. "They are right behind me!"

To may dismay, a crowd of people entered the small clearing. One woman looked my age and carried a bow and a sheath of arrows, another slightly older in a black jumpsuit and a giant boomerang thingy, a third that looked ancient with an eye patch. There was also a man that looked slightly similar to Sesshomaru, though his hair was not as perfect and his eyes not as calm and calculating. He also had little dog ears on top of his head, and for some reason I wanted to go and play with them...but he had a look of utter hatred on his face as he glared at Sesshomaru, and decided it wouldn't be a good idea. Not like I could walk over there anyway.

The two younger girls were blushing and looking away in embarrassment, and realized they knew what had been going on here as Sesshomaru pulled his armor on. I also noticed that I had the most flustered look in the world on my face, and that it didn't help the two of us look innocent. I was still pissed though. I was so close!

"Thank you for coming on such short notice," Sesshomaru said in his new-found cold tone. "But did all of you need to come? I just needed the young priestess."

"I don't trust you around Kagome," the man spat at Sesshomaru. This guy was definitely going to get his ass kicked by me.

"I came just in case they needed help with anything," said the woman in the jumpsuit.

"Aye, as with me," said the ancient woman. "And of course, healing is a specialty of mine. I can't stand by when I know a young soul is injured."

I could tell Sesshomaru kind of just wanted everyone that wasn't needed to leave, but he stepped aside and let them take me in fully. I imagine I looked pretty helpless to them all, the way I lay snuggled into the furry boa like a child hiding from monsters under the bed.

The youngest girl, the one with the bow and arrows, approached to get a better look at me, and her eyes widened in surprise. "She is! I can't believe it!" she squealed excitedly. "How did you get here? Where are you from?"

"What?" I asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

The girl calmed herself down and knelt down by me. "Do you know where you are?"

I of course shook my head no.

"You're five hundred years in the past," she said. That statement just made me think everyone had just gone crazy, or that everyone was playing a really stupid joke on me. I watched Back to the Future, and I know I hadn't gotten into the driver's seat of any damn time machine. "I can go from the present to here and back again through an old well at the shrine my family owns. Is that how you got here, through that well?"

A flashback of the well in the weed-infested yard came back to me. "You own that crappy run-down well in that field?"

She looked at me weird for a moment before getting the look of realization on her face. "There's more than one..." she mumbled. "This is fascinating! Where are you from? What is your name? What is the year you come from?"

"My name is Stacey, from Tokyo. 2011. What does any of it matter for?"

"Amazing!" she screeched. "She's from eleven years ahead of my time! This is groundbreaking! Tell me, where is the well you came out of?"

"I don't know," I answered. "I got lost after I got attacked by a monster. I wouldn't be able to tell you."

"It has been a week since she has been through there," Sesshomaru spoke up.

"Damn," the man muttered. "Wouldn't be able to track a scent that old."

The girl stood up and smiled down at me. "It's okay though. I guess we'll come across it when fortune finds us. I'm Kagome, by the way. These are my friends Sango and Kaede, and that is my boyfriend, Inuyasha."

The girls greeted me warmly, but Inuyasha didn't even bother looking in my direction. Yep, he was getting his ass kicked when my leg healed. I'd make sure to shove my foot so far up his rectum that you could see it in the back of his throat. I was serious, too. I didn't like him.

"It is not as bad as the little demon had described," Kaede said, examining my leg. Upon my own inspection, I saw a lot of bruising and a hot pink line where it looked like something had cut my skin, but it had healed. It also looked slightly swollen.

"Yeah, she's right.," Kagome agreed. "I thought you said the bone was sticking out?"

"Are you calling me a liar?" the imp sputtered. "I know what I saw! There was bone!"

"She healed really quick from it then," Kagome said evenly. "I'm surprised it's not infected."

"I cleaned her wound and set the bone while she was unconscious," Sesshomaru explained.

"I'm amazed she didn't wake up from that pain!"

"I numbed her," he replied.

"With what?"

Sesshomaru held out his wrist to Kagome to show her the scar from where he kept reopening his wound. Her looked turned from questioning to horror when she realized what he meant. "I think I'm going to be sick..."

"I love it," I blurted. "It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's like a syrupy drug."

"Really?" Sango asked, a look of disgust on her face as well. "How?"

"It makes my pain go away if I have enough of it. It makes me loopy though. And it...does other things too."

They ignored my last vague statement and started babbling about the properties of demon blood. They got deep into the conversation, talking about how some demons devoured the flesh of other demons to gain strength, so it was plausible that blood would have regenerating qualities. When they finally got back on the topic of me, they began arguing on what to do with me. Sesshomaru remained quiet through the whole argument, his face unreadable.

"She needs to come back to the village where she can get proper care," Kagome and Sango nearly screeched in unison.

"We don't know what the hell she can do!" Inuyasha yelled back at them. "She could kill us all!"

"Inuyasha has a point," Kaede said wisely.

"Well, we'll be there to stop her if she tries anything!" Kagome argued.

"I will be there as well," Sesshomaru interjected coldly.

Everyone turned to stare at him. "Why?" they all asked with surprised looks.

"If you take her back to the village, Rin is there."

They all nodded in understanding. Who was this Rin? Rin was a girl's name. Where was my shovel when I needed it? A girl Sesshomaru cared about other than me-she must die. Sesshomaru was mine. I found him...well, I didn't find him first, but I found him best. No one was taking him away from me. Did he seriously think I was a threat? Surely he knew I couldn't even hurt a fly. Well, I guess killing this girl would prove otherwise...But seriously, if this bitch was creeping in on my man, there was gonna be a problem.

In my moment of psychotic thought, they all ended up deciding to take me back to this village of theirs. The main issue was how they would be transporting me, and immediately Sesshomaru declared no one would be touching me but him, which made me feel slightly less worried about this Rin girl. Maybe she was just a friend. Or maybe she was really a he. Or some sort of cute little pet.

Once everything was settled, Sesshomaru gave me a big enough dose of blood (I decided he would overpower me anyway and to be complacent about it for the time being) to make me groggy and removed his armor so I could fit comfortably on his back. As soon as I lay my head on the crook of his neck, sending shivers through him again, I was out like a light. And good thing, too, because I'm sure that eventually every bump in the road would have been more painful than I could bare.


	4. Chapter 4

**When my eyes finally opened, it was met once again with the dim light of a small fire. The soft glow of it illuminated the tiny hut that I lay in. It was very bare, a few old fashioned cooking utensils (such as a cast iron pot, a rod with a pointed end that I assumed was a poker for the fire, a large wooden spoon, etc.) thrown carelessly on the opposite side of the flames. The straw mat that acted as a door to the hut was no obstacle for the cold air that spilled into the small living space, and even the fire didn't help keep the chill from nipping at my skin. I didn't have the fur this time, just hand-made blankets that formed the futon I slept on. I snuggled deeper into the blankets, though it didn't do much.**

I shivered as I stared blankly at the wall opposite me, wistfully thinking about the boa that had kept me so warm before. I also wondered where everyone had gone in the middle of the night, and how long I had been asleep for it to be dark again. The distant throbbing in my leg made me worry about the pain coming back, and I wanted Sesshomaru to hurry back so that I wasn't crippled with the pain when it came.

Wind whistled into the hut, making the straw mat whip against the wood of the doorway. A few stray snowflakes made their way over to the fire and almost instantly melted, making the fire hiss. The sound was eerie, mostly because I was alone. Everything always had a creepy, scary feel to it when you were awake and alone in the middle of the night. It didn't help that I was slightly afraid of the dark.

A child-like figure entered the hut, and I quickly shut my eyes and pretended I was asleep so that I wouldn't be forced to interact with a stranger. It sounded like he or she put some more wood on the fire and poked it around to make sure that the wood caught. The child's footsteps came about to me, and their shadow fell across my face. The child made sure that I was tucked in and put a warm hand to my face, which felt nice. They seemed to jump a little, I think from feeling my icy skin, and seemed to hesitate. "Lord Sesshomaru can help," the child murmured to herself. Her voice was sweet and strong, like it was coming from someone much older than she looked.

The child removed her hand from my face, but didn't move away from me. I could feel her eyes on me, studying me. A moment passed before she spoke again, and I was unsure if she said it because she knew I was awake and she wanted me to hear it, or if she really thought I was asleep and was just thinking aloud. "I can see why Lord Sesshomaru likes her so much. She's pretty...her hair is like rings of sunshine."

I almost snorted from laughter at the comment. I hated my hair. I had blonde ringlets, but they weren't perfect ringlets. They had good shape, but they were frizzy from my lack of hair care. It was more like a semi-amorphous blob with some curls on it. Of course that was actually an exaggeration, but if my curls couldn't be like I wanted them, they were ugly to me. That's why I constantly brushed my hair and left it unstyled-it made my hair considerably less frizzy than if I let my ringlets stay.

The little girl exited the hut, and I opened my eyes again to gratefully greet the emptiness of the hut. While I didn't like being alone, I was more fond of it than being in a small space with someone I had never met or even seen before. She knew Sesshomaru though, so she couldn't be too bad, but I would still prefer to have someone else here when introduced to her. It made me feel more secure somehow.

I sat up, keeping the blankets wrapped around me. I couldn't even fathom the temperature outside, but it was definitely not the kind of temperature that I had clothes for. It was another reason I hated Japan-it would have been swimming weather back home already. Winter in this damn place seemed to last all the way until July. I mean, it was the middle of April right now, and it was snowing outside. Where I came from, it would literally mean hell froze over if it snowed. Even in the middle of winter. I had never even seen snow until I moved to this crap hole. And I hated the cold as a whole anyway, though that just may be my bias as a Floridian.

I had scooted as close to the fire as I dared to pout over my predicament, and I was so deep into my thoughts that when someone put their hand on my shoulder, I nearly jumped out of my skin. You don't do that to people in the middle of the night!

"It is just me," Seshomaru said softly, rubbing my back to calm my shivering. Even though it was from cold, and not fear. Honest mistake, though. I jumped pretty bad.

"Is this the village?" I asked, realizing that my voice was leaving me. I was so hoarse that I could barely understand what I said myself. I hoped I wasn't getting sick. The technology of this hut didn't get my hopes up about the medicine these people would have, which I suspected would be a concoction of sticks and mud.

"This is where we will be staying for a while," he confirmed. "I suspect no more than just this day, however. Your wound has healed considerably since we arrived, and you haven't been crying out in your sleep from any pain. Does it hurt you now?"

"No. But that's because you've given me blood. I just feel a throbbing. Not pain, just like there would be some if I put a lot of pressure on it."

"I have not given you blood since we left the forest. You have healed enough that you no longer need to have it."

I'm sure the look on my face at his words was the reason that an almost unnoticeable smile played on his lips. The corners of his mouth ever so slightly rose at the look of utter horror that crossed my face. "But-but-"

"There are other things that you can have that will be more than enough to replace the loss," he said, his tone almost amused at my addiction to his blood.

I was skeptical of his words. I was doubtful he could give me anything I liked nearly as much as that horrible drug he kept in his veins. Unless it was sex, though I was unsure how much I'd like that since I was a virgin. But then I perked up a little at the thought. Did he mean he'd give me sex?

Sesshomaru put a hand to my cheek, and I blushed a little at the way he looked into my eyes as he did it. I couldn't help but look away in embarrassment. He was so powerful, but the way he touched me then was so gentle and emotional. They way he did it said a lot of things I figured he'd never say aloud.

He brought his face right up to mine, our lips barely touching. His breath was sweet and intoxicating, and it warmed my face up tremendously. I hadn't noticed that the cold had made my face so cold-it was freezing almost to the point of pain. I was grateful for this warmth, and astounded at the amount of heat his body gave off. Supposedly, he wasn't human though. I was still skeptical about him being some sort of other being, and me having traveled five hundred years into the past. But evidence was playing in that favor. I still had time to make my decision on it.

"You're always so cold," he murmured against my lips. I closed my eyes and leaned into him. Our lips connected completely, and he immediately removed his hand from my face so that he could lower the blankets from around my body and replace them with his arms. He didn't kiss me hard, like the force he had used back in the clearing. But it was filled with a lot of emotion. There was a hunger there, like he had never had this before. As cheesy as it is, there was a lot of passion, too. It was something that he'd wanted for a long time. There was also a fierce edge to it-one that said he loved me and would kill anyone who tried to take me away from him. Of course, I wasn't one hundred percent sure on those, but that's what it felt like. And I loved him like that back. I just wished that it didn't make me feel so uncomfortable. I couldn't get over the fact I had no idea who this guy was, yet I loved him.

Disregarding the sense that my brain kept trying to feed me, I wrapped my arms around Seshomaru's neck, and he put one of his hands under my butt for extra support as he lay down. We were both laying down then, me on top of him, unable to kiss the other enough to satisfy ourselves. I pulled away to take in his beautiful face.

The look he regarded me with was so vulnerable, I was genuinely surprised to see it. He seemed so emotionless all the time. He was always cool and collected, though I knew if he was made angry he could probably kill thousands in an instant. But this look...it was a mixture of longing, sadness, love, lust, and happiness. It was the exact same look I knew I wore on my face. The look that told him I wanted him and loved him irrevocably, that I would live and die for him, like a horrible feudal version of Romeo and Juliet. A sad smile came to his face and it looked like his eyes were beginning to form tears. And I understood somehow that he never showed emotion with anyone, that I was the first to see his emotion put right out there. That he trust me with it, and would be the only one to ever witness it by his will.

A kiss was all I could think of to offer in understanding. While our past intimate moments were full of lust, this was of pure emotion. The level of understanding that we had with each other at that moment was mind blowing to me, that we knew what the other felt without words being said.

The child that had entered the hut earlier came back, and she was holding a bowl full of what I guess to be hot water. I could see the steam rising in the light of the fire, as well as a towel thrown over her shoulder.

She looked to be about maybe eight years old, and wore an orange and yellow checkered kimono. Her hair was black and long, with a cute little side ponytail that made her look more innocent than I knew she was.

"I knew you would find a way to keep her warm," she said brightly as she took in the sight of me laying on top of Sesshomaru. "I brought the hot water like you asked. Do you need any help?"

Sesshomaru sat up and set me gently back where I had been sitting before we had our make-out session. "No, Rin. Thank you for the water. Now go to bed, it's very late."

"Yes, my lord!" she said happily, handing Sesshomaru the towel and a small cloth she had in the shirt of her kimono before scurrying out the door.

I couldn't help but shiver from the the cold as Sesshomaru undressed me. His face had gone back to its normal emotionless state when Rin, who I now realized was a little girl that I didn't have to worry about killing, had entered. I still saw his eyes flicker to my face as I shivered, which I knew meant he worried about my health. It also let me know that I had to have this done for that reason, and he'd make it as quick as possible so I could get redressed.

He basically gave me a sponge bath, and even though I nearly froze to death, I did feel better afterwards. I was used to a hot shower with shampoo and body wash, but I was thankful that I could get clean regardless. If I was really where everyone said I was, I figured the hot spring in that clearing was the closest I'd ever get to a real bath in this place.

"Where were you when I woke up?" I asked him as he removed his boa thingy to give to me again. He wrapped it around me after I lay back down, and then he placed the blankets on me.

There was a troubled look in his eyes as he debated on how to answer. "The priestess was gathering proper clothing for you. What you are wearing is not the best for this weather."

I could have bought that if, A) He had the clothing with him and B) if he was a girl. Clothing was never really a guy thing. He didn't strike me as a fashion enriched male.

"I don't understand why you'd lie about where you were," I said after studying his stormy expression.

"It's not of your concern."

"Yes it is," I said after studying him some more. "They way you looked at me just now. You came here because there's something wrong. Am I terminally ill or something?" I thought about my hoarse voice.

"No," he gave a chuckle, which sounded foreign. At least he thought I was funny, even if in a naive way. "You are perfectly healthy. The young priestess says you are coming down with a cold, however, and need rest and fluid."

"Then why are you worried about me?"

After a long internal debate, Sesshomaru finally coughed up the details. "There was a visitor in the village earlier," he began. "It was someone no one here thinks is good company. This person asked about you, if any of us had seen you. Your name is not common here, so it had to be you. He had even given your description. We all are quite sure you had nothing to do with this person, so we...got them to leave. However, they told us that you are from a clan that is part of legends around here, that most everyone believes to be that of fairy tails, stories many humans-and even demons-tell their children to scare them. It is not something any of us have heard for quite some time, but when we conferred with each other...your description does seem to match it. We just have yet to see the magical properties that go with the race...though the notion that you're from this clan is absurd in itself. We're almost positive the man was just crazy."

"It would help if I knew what this 'legend' was," I said after Sesshomaru didn't continue.

"I do not remember it too well. I was only told it once, when I was very young. It was about this magical race that lived in the sky. They looked like humans, but they had hair that were spiraled and golden like the rays of the sun, and eyes like emeralds or sapphires. If I remember correctly, those with the eyes of Sapphires were of a lower class, and had less power. They could control water, but to a certain extent. Those with the eyes of emerald were few and far between, and they were very powerful. They could move the earth itself, and could alter the weather to their whims. The royal family possessed the most power, and ruled over their people fiercely. Land dwellers, which would be us, were considered scum to them, and it was commonplace for them all to torture us until death for fun, using our surroundings against us. They were a malicious and evil race that died out thousands of years ago due to political anarchy and the land dwellers fighting back. The end of the legend says that one day, the youngest princess will reincarnate and return to decide the fate of the world."

"And this person said that I was this princess?" I asked after letting the story sink in.

Sesshomaru didn't respond, but the look on his face confirmed as much.

"That...WOULD BE SO FUCKING COOL. But that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I'm still skeptical about being in the 1400's, but I am most certainly NOT some princess. I look the way I do because my heritage is from Germany. I'm a stereotypical German. If you had ever been to Germany, you would know."

Sesshomaru opened his mouth to reply, probably something along the lines of agreeing with how absurd the claim was, but Inuyasha burst into the hut just then, snowflakes lodged in his hair.

"You're coming. Now."

"What for?" I asked angrily, cutting off whatever cold retort Sesshomaru was going to throw at him. Inuyasha was not someone I was going to take orders from. He reminded me something of one of my sisters, neither of which I liked.

"Like you have the right to know," he spat at me.

A furious expression ran across my face and I stood up abruptly, ignoring the pain in my leg from having my weight on it. "EXCUSE ME, YOU DIRTY MUTT?!" I nearly screamed at him. My exclamation and sudden movement caught him off guard, and his haughty expression fell. I stomped over to him (which was only a few steps in the confines of the little hut) and put my face right in his. "You do NOT talk to me like that. I will fucking bust you open worse than I did my mother. I. Will. Destroy. You."

Inuyasha had been trying to stare me down, looking me right in the eyes, but halfway through my threat, the look on his face turned to sheer terror. I must have had a pretty good pissed faced, and I was pleased with myself or having that effect on someone taller and stronger than myself.

I turned to Sesshomaru to see puzzlement playing in his eyes, and I expected he would want to ask me questions later. Looking back at Inuyasha, he seemed to have regained some of his composure and scoffed. "Well," he said haughtily, still attempting to play tough. "Kagome and the old bag want to ask you some things. So just hurry up and follow me."

Pleased that I was able to instill some fear in someone, though a little surprised at my outburst, I followed Inuyasha with the steadying help of Seshomaru. He had offered to carry me, but I was determined to walk myself. It felt like I hadn't walked in ages!

It was freezing outside of my little living space, and I did accept Sesshomaru's boa to wrap around my torso. It was pitch black out, snowflakes barely visible in the dim light that spilled out of my one little hut. The rest of the huts that lined the dirt road were dark inside, and I figured that my assumption the it was the middle of the night was accurate.

The wind felt sharp against my exposed face, the snowflakes it carried catching in my eyelashes and melting, making my cheeks feel like knives were running down them. Sesshomaru reached over and adjusted his boa around my head like the hood of a coat so that it offered my face slight protection.

We walked some distance down the dark road, and I was glad to have Sesshomaru there holding my hand, guiding me and protecting me. This was an eerie kind of dark that reminded me of 30 days of night, or whatever it was called. Monsters like the one that attacked me when I first got here lay in wait beyond my sight.

Eventually we came to a hut that was dimly lit like mine. Inside, it was three times the size mine was, though that wasn't saying much. Kagome and Kaede were sitting around the fire keeping warm, though I didn't know where Sango had gone to. I hurried over to the fire, grateful for what little warmth it offered me. Sesshomaru dutifully sat right beside of me, and Inuyasha sat opposite me, next to Kagome.

"So," Kagome started off awkwardly. "What kind of powers do you have?"

Well, getting right to the point then. "None," I said, snorting out a short laugh. "I'm not special like you people. I'm an ordinary human being."

Kagome and Kaede exchanged looks. "The only two people we know of that can use the sacred well, aside from ye, is Inuyasha and Kagome. Kagome is able to travel through the well because of her link to Inuyasha, and Inuyasha because of his link to Kagome. Or, more rather, because she is the reincarnation of a priestess from this time, who is linked to Inuyasha. Ye need have some connection with this time to be able to travel through a well. Ye must be a reincarnation of a powerful or significant figure of this time, or of the past. Ye must have some reason to belong here in this time."

"Well, I most certainly don't have any powers. I would have noticed in my 19 years of life."

"I didn't notice that I had any powers until I came here," Kagome said brightly. "I think there is just some kind of power about this time period that brings out the dormant abilities of others. Maybe you just need to practice different things to really find out?"

"If I had magical powers in this era, I really could have used them when I got attacked by that ugly cat-giraffe monster."

Kagome and Kaede exchanged worried looks. "What did ye get attacked by, young one?" Kaede asked.

I guess they hadn't been filled in too much on that. "It had the face of a bald cat, the rest of it had grey fur. It's body looked like the body of a giraffe, or even a hyena I guess. And it was huge, about the size of a small house. Maybe about seven to ten of my huts put together."

Kaede's one eye had widened at my description. "Do ye know of the Caliri, the sky people?"

"Sesshomaru was telling me what he remembered of them from a story," I answered. "And I don't think that I could be one of them. It's a ridiculous claim."

"That is no story. It is a prophecy. Priests and priestesses across the land are well taught about everything dealing with the Caliri. It would be disastrous to go back into the dark times, where humans and demons both feared the wrath of the sky people. The beast you described, it had a tapered back, yes?"

I nodded.

"It sounds a lot like a demon that had gone extinct long ago. It is a beast that land dwellers created through magic to defend themselves against the Caliri. They were trained only to attack Caliri, so they were quite docile towards land dwellers and were often kept as pets or guardians. It could not fly like many of them could, but it had powerful hind legs that could be used to catapult itself into the air and snatch them if the sky people weren't quick enough in fleeing. These beasts were sadistic and enjoyed watching victims suffer before devouring them piece by piece, much like the Caliri enjoyed doing to us. It's hide was tough and could withstand the beating of the elements that they used. Only the royal family could take on more than one, being the most powerful. Mainly their psychic power was what saved them from the beasts-while they were immune to compulsion or mind control, psychic screams could be used to immobilize them for short periods, or some members could even teleport out of danger. Eventually, after the Caliri fell, the beasts turned on the earth dwellers and had to be eradicated by priests and priestesses. We thought them to be extinct..."

I processed the information. "Well, I am a land dweller," was the only thing I could think to say. "And you did say they turned on us."

"If the remaining species went into hiding after apparent eradication," Kaede countered. "The question would be why they would reappear now. And why ye happened to be the first victim."

"Wrong place at the wrong time? Mistaken identity?"

Kaede sighed. "The reason we brought ye here, is so we can discuss how to go about this. Especially with the reappearance of the Guardian Beasts, we must take logical precautions. We need to observe ye to see if ye have any magic building up within."

I sat and looked at them for a bit, taking in their expressions as I thought back. I remember absolutely nothing about me having any power over any element. If I was supposed to be some sort of magical princess of legend, I wasn't being very good in either the princess or magic department. I silently thought to myself that it would be pretty awesome to have psychic powers, like to read minds and stuff.

A pang of uneasiness shot through me as I remembered the static when I first woke in this world after the attack, the broken words that filtered into my mind. I thought long and hard about it, and wondered vaguely if that was just for Sesshomaru because of sharing his blood, and it had created some sort of magical link between our minds. The static was still there, but no words were coming through to me.

The silence in the hut turned to tension as I realized that they were waiting for me to say something. "If I thought I had some sort of power, and we tested it and it was a power...what would happen then?"

Kaede thought for a moment. "The prophecy says that the princess will return and decide the fate of the world. We don't know exactly what that means...but all we can do is keep ye with us and guide ye in making the right decisions, and hope that ye don't kill us all."

Inuyasha had remained silent and aloof, but I knew he would chip in something negative sooner or later. "Or we could kill her now and save the worry," he said with a sneer. I glared at him again and his confident face faltered again, but regained it when he realized there were other people in the room to help him if I tried to kill him. Which I was actually contemplating.

"Well," I said slowly. "I think...I think I'm starting to be able to read minds."

The tension in the room leapt up about two hundred degrees.

"Can you tell what I'm thinking?" Kagome asked excitedly.

I stared into her eyes really hard, and all the static did was get really loud in the back of my head. "No," I breathed out. "There's this static in the back of my head though, like there's some other channel in my mind. I could read Sesshomaru's mind very openly after he gave me his blood. That's when it started to get strong. I dunno if it's just his blood that let's me read his mind and his only, or if it triggered this power..."

I felt stupid discussing this like there was actually a possibility of me being this mythical princess. But the feeling of uneasiness inside of me made me think it might actually be possible...

"Well, did you get ANYTHING from me?" Kagome asked.

"The static got really loud," I told her. "But I don't know if that was me concentrating or just Sesshomaru getting antsy."

Everyone's eyes turned to Sesshomaru, who wore a blank expression. He shrugged an answer at our questioning eyes.

"Well, I guess you just need to practice focusing?" Kagome said. "To see if you really can do it? Meditating helps me with my powers as a priestess. They're kind of the same. Maybe that would help? And you could practice on me."

Inuyasha's expression told me he wasn't all for that idea, but he had no say in it. "That sounds good to me," I agreed with a smile.

"Until then," Kaede interjected. "Ye are not to be left alone. One of us must be with ye at all times. We do not want...undesirable people trying to harm or corrupt ye."

I vaguely wondered if that had anything to do with the unexpected visitor that had come earlier, but didn't question the order. I didn't want to be alone in this god forsaken place and was glad it was an order to constantly have company. Like I would have a choice if I felt any other way.

Kaede's pleasant smile could almost be taken for a sneer. "Inuyasha, ye have first watch."

"What?"

"No way in hell!"

Inuyasha and I protested in unison.

"He's so mean!"

"She can go die somewhere before I protect her!"

"I hate him!"

"There are other people here you can force to watch her!"

"Can't Sesshomaru or Kagome watch me instead?"

"Kill me now!"

Kaede raised her hand to quiet our complaints. "Sesshomaru can accompany ye as much as he pleases. But someone from the village, that we trust, needs to be watching at all times."

Inuyasha didn't seem to be too thrilled about having to babysit the two of us, but he didn't offer any more complaints.

Our little meeting done, Inuyasha walked Sessomaru and I back to my tiny hut. The sky looked silver on the line that separated the earth from the sky, and I figured that the sun was going to start its cycle soon. Sesshomaru lay down with me, an arm wrapped around my waist, and Inuyasha sat in the doorway with a disgusted look on his face. I stuck my tongue out at him and closed my eyes before he could have the satisfaction of making a face back at me.

With the warmth of Sesshomaru and his boa, I fell asleep pretty fast and fell into the worst nightmare I had ever had in my life.


	5. Chapter 5

My elaborate gown floated gracefully behind me as I ran through dimly lit tunnels. Sheer terror filled me as my bare feet seemed to step on every sharp rock there was, though the adrenaline rush blocked out the pain of the lacerations I knew were there. The smell of sewage made my nose and eyes burn, and I had to keep wiping the tears out of my eyes so I could see what tunnels I was turning down.

Yowling bounced off of the rocky walls, and I knew that it came from one of those beasts. There was more than one this time, and I knew they desperately wanted my flesh. There was an edge to their cries, though. They knew I was cornered in these tunnels, that I had no where to go, and they were enjoying playing this game of cat and mouse.

Panic stricken, I paused and let a power rise within me. I let it build until I couldn't hold anymore, and let out a high pitched tone within my mind. Howls of pain met me, and I continued to run, ignoring the stinging pain in my feet.

The sounds they made were angry now, the scraping of their claws against the ground drawing ever nearer. They were tired of playing, and angry for the pain I brought them, and they were going to rip me to shreds. My heart pounded so hard in my chest, I could hear it in my ears and feel it in my throat.

There was a hole in the floor of the tunnel not too far ahead, the light of day shining up through it. It was my only other alternative, and I knew I wasn't going to be taken by these beasts.

My feet pounded the rock harder than it ever had, and I could feel the breath of the beasts on the back of my neck. I didn't look back, but I knew that the one in the lead had its mouth open, hoping its long teeth would snag my robes and ensnare me to my doom.

But then I fell into the hole.

Wind whipped around me as I fell from my city in the sky with the sewage of my people to the dead wasteland below. Above me, I saw the gnashing of fangs as the beasts tried desperately to claw their way through a hole that they were far to big to fit through.

The fear of impact to the earth was unbearable, my heart threatening to break out of my ribcage as seconds passed in the free fall. My city was hidden by the clouds, but I knew it was there even though I was far enough away to no longer see the sewage exit. I knew that my chance of survival was slim. I was too weak to use any power to save myself. But at least I wasn't dying at the hands of those abominations.

I was abruptly awake, cradled in the arms of Sesshomaru. He was shushing me like a child who couldn't stop crying, rocking me back and forth. And I realized that I was crying. I sobbed into him, the terror from my dream causing my entire body to tremble.

"It's okay," he cooed, holding me tighter. "It was a dream."

"No it wasn't," I sobbed. "It was a memory, and it was terrible!"

"A memory then," he said gently. "We aren't in your past. This is your present. Whatever it was won't happen again."

I looked up from him and saw Inuyasha looking at me with a slightly worried expression, like he was unsure if he should go fetch Kaede or Kagome. I was also pretty sure that his earlier fear of me now gave way to pity. He also gave Sesshomaru a really weird look as he soothed me that I couldn't place. I concentrated to see if I could read his mind, but all it did was make the static louder again. I wonder if I had to do something special?

I wiped the tears off of my face as my stomach let out a loud growl. I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since lunch at school, and the only thing that had been keeping me nourished was Sesshomaru's blood.

Sesshomaru kissed the top of my head and released me so he could stand. "I will be back in a moment," he said softly, exiting the hut into what looked like a miserable and cloudy day. I hoped that he went to get food.

I looked up at Inuyasha, who was still watching Sesshomaru leave through the space between the mat and the hut. "What is your problem with me?" I asked him, causing him to turn his attention to me. "I hadn't done anything to warrant your attitude towards me."

"Anyone who my bastard brother takes in has to be bad news."

"Sesshomaru is your brother?" I asked, astonished. "You don't look too much alike."

"Yeah, well. We have different moms."

"Oh," I said. "Well, you shouldn't judge people like that. I'm not any worse of a person than you are. Actually, I'm probably a better person than you are because I don't treat people like shit when I don't know them."

Inuyasha looked offended at the comment, and I withheld the smirk I wanted to give. "Well, if you're the reincarnation of that princess, I would have been right to treat you like that."

"Just because your girlfriend is the reincarnation of someone from the past, it doesn't make them the same person. I'm sure if you had known whoever it was she was in the past, you would see how different they are."

He looked a little taken aback at my words, and his expression turned hard. "I did know her." He scowled at me after a few moments of thought. "But...you're right, as much as I hate to say. I've learned to recognize when I'm wrong from my past. And...I'm sorry for how I've treated you. It was wrong."

I stared long and hard at him, genuinely surprised that he would apologize like that. He didn't seem the type. "Apology accepted."

Sesshomaru then came back into the hut, empty handed. Inuyasha scowled at him when he entered, though he gave that funny look again when Sesshomaru knelt down and put his arms around me. I was going to ask him why he gave Sesshomaru that look later.

"The priestess is going to make you some food. She will bring it shortly."

I smiled up at him, thankful that he would go and ask them to bring me some food. I was seriously starving, and I was sure that my stomach had shrank to the size of a pea. Blood wasn't necessarily something that would keep the stomach filled.

I coughed, the gunk that had made my voice faint finally irking my body enough to make it come back up. Sesshomaru didn't hesitate in lifting his wrist up to his mouth. I watched him use one of his fangs to pierce his flesh and rake it across, a thick stream of blood escaping in its wake.

Knowing the routine (not to mention the feeling I would have), I immediately latched onto his wrist. The disgusted cries that Inuyasha let out were lost to me as my mind spun into the hazy world that the endorphins created for me. I felt wonderful, happy, and I just wanted to drink it forever.

But Sesshomaru cut me off abruptly, and I could see a look of horror on Kagome's face in my disoriented state. Her expression slowly registered in my mind, and I shook my head to try and shrug off the effects of the blood. The desire to rape Sesshomaru and drink more of his precious drug went away after a few moments of concentration, though the static was loud again with words pouring through at intervals. I looked back up at Kagome to see that she no longer looked horrified. She had an uneasy expression though.

"I...brought you some food," she said, probably unsure of what else to say after what she had witnessed.

"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed happily with a smile, examining a wooden tray she had bought me. "I'm starved."

I noticed that the blood gave me an almost content feeling in my hunger. Whereas it was not enough to fill me up, I no longer felt like I hadn't eaten in a week.

She set the tray down in front of me. On it was a cup of water, one fire cooked fish, and a bowl of soup with various vegetables. And I inhaled all of it in less than two minutes, because I'm fat like that.

"I feel so much better now," I sighed, patting my large-and now full-belly.

"If you're finished," Kagome began shyly. "We want to take you into the forest to try and see if you have any elemental power."

With a nice dose of blood in my belly, I stared at her intently a moment to see if I really did have a psychic power. I bore my gaze into her pupils, and I suddenly felt like I was merging with her and then was thrown into a world full of color-like a psychedelic pool of swirls all around me-moving past me like I was flying through a portal. And then I was looking at myself, with Sesshomaru's boa wrapped around me, my clothes dirty and frayed. There was blood smeared around my mouth and a little on my cheeks, and the curls on my head were in disarray. My eyes were so bright though. Normally they were dim and reserved. But now they glowed with almost an eerie, ghostly light. As I looked at them, feelings that weren't my own washed over me-curiosity, uneasiness, a sense of violation.

"Why is she staring at me like that?" I thought. But it wasn't my thought, it was a foreign voice. It was Kagome's. "It feels like she's looking into my soul or something. And her eyes...they're bright but they look glassed over. Like she's not there. Kind of like she's dead...is she okay?"

I realized that I was inside of Kagome's head. It was like I was her, yet I wasn't. I wondered if I could control her?

Tentatively, I tried to consume her mind. Not in a devouring way, but like covering her mind with myself like a blanket, or a chocolate coated strawberry. I then pretended like it was my own mind, and moved my right arm. And it moved! I looked down at Kagome's hand, and a sense of alarm came over me. Well, came over Kagome. "What's going on?!" she thought frantically. "I didn't do that! I can't move! I can't speak!"

"SO FUCKING COOL!" I said out loud. Or, well, Kagome said. But she said my thoughts.

"What?" Inuyasha asked in an astonished tone, giving me a startled look. "Are you okay?"

"I'm pregnant!" I told him, wanting to screw with him. It's all I had not to burst into laughter. I just thought it would be a hilarious joke.

"W-What?!" he exclaimed.

Now that I think about it, I didn't know if these two even screwed around like that. Might not want to put a bad rep on this girl. By the look on Inuyasha's face, though, I'd say they had done their fair share of the horizontal monster mash.

"Nah, I'm just screwing with you," I said. "Just wanted to see what you'd do."

Kagome's mind kept growing increasingly panicked, and I was then forcefully thrown out of her mind and sent back into my own. I fell backwards from the force, out of Sesshomaru's gentle embrace.

Kagome gasped aloud, like she had been suffocating. Inuyasha went to her side as Sesshomaru went to mine.

"What the hell is going on?!" Inuyasha nearly screamed.

"That...was fucking awesome," I croaked as Sesshomaru helped sit me up.

"You were inside me!" Kagome choked out.

"Sorry about that," I said sheepishly. "I didn't know I could do that and wanted to test it out. I wonder if there's some special reason why I connected with you like that?"

Kagome still looked a little shaken up by the event, but she nodded to let me know my apology was accepted. "It might just be because I'm spiritual to begin with, so my mind is more susceptible to it," she offered. "But please don't do that again. I don't like it. If you want to practice that power, it will have to be with someone else..."

I gave her another sheepish look, but nodded in understanding. "I guess I'm a princess?"

"I guess so," she said. "Let's go practice your elemental powers now."

Kaede came and brought in some clothes for me right before we stepped out of my tiny living area. It was a winter kimono. It was thick and looked warm. It was a deep blue, with white dots (that I suspected were to be snowflakes) and stars. The obi was a powder blue, and it definitely gave the ensemble a wintery look.

"This was my older sister's favorite kimono," she said, handing it to me. "It does me no good keeping it any longer, and I expect that she would wish it to go to someone who needs it."

They all stepped out of the hut so I could change, though I had to call Kaede back in to tie the obi. I'd never worn a kimono that didn't have a Velcro obi. It fit me surprisingly well, however, and it was indeed warm-much more so that my previous clothes. It was also more maneuverable than it looked.

I stepped out so everyone could see my new kimono. Sesshomaru's expression didn't reveal much, though I secretly hoped he liked it. Inuyasha didn't look too impressed, though Kagome squealed with excitement. Kaede also commented on how nice I looked. If only I could brush my hair...

Now with a set of warm clothes, I followed the group through the lightly falling snow into the forest that lay outside of the village. Everything was white from the storm last night, and I had a hard time following everyone. I wasn't used to traveling in snow, and the bamboo sandals Kaede had given me didn't help any. At least the socks were warm.

We finally arrived at a small clearing that a tiny stream ran through. It was peaceful. A few birds were singing in some trees not too far away, and the sun seemed to peek out of the clouds just for this little area. The water sparkled in its light and brightened the otherwise dead looking area.

"So...how do we go about doing this?" I asked after I had taken in the scene.

"Just do what you did when you went into my mind," Kagome suggested.

I sighed and looked around. I supposed that I should pick an element, so I walked over to the stream. After a few moments of concentrating on it, I got frustrated. "GOD DAMN IT, MOVE, WATER!"

It continued to flow smoothly like no one was able to control it. How dare it.

Angrily, I walked over to the circle that the others had formed. I slapped a rock and the trunk of a random tree on my way over (not very hard though-I liked to think I had delicate hands) and kept my eyes on the snow below my feet. "I'm getting tired of this already," I said, sitting down beside Sessomaru. "I don't think I can control the water. It's like...it wants to ignore me or something. I dunno."

Kaede scraped away some snow on the ground until she got to the muddy earth. She scooped up some of it in her hands and held it out to me. "Try this," she told me.

Sighing, I stared at the dirt. I was unconvinced I could do anything, so I spoke sarcastically. "Dirt, move." I made and upward motion with my hand, like I was ordering it to stand up or jump. And it did. Well, it was more like it took off from her hand like a rocket. I doubted I'd be seeing that dirt again anytime soon."Was that...did I do that? Or are you guys screwing with me?"

They all just stared at me.

"It was like you knew I would be able to move the earth," I said to Kaede. She responded by pointing behind me to something. When I turned to see what it was, I realized that when I had touched the rock and tree when I came to sit down that I had left hand prints in them-almost as if they had been made of clay, or the molecules of them had moved to fit around my hand and were too lazy to move back.

"That's pretty cool," I said, looking down at the ground. "Oh! Make a dirt castle!" Of course the ground didn't move at my order. "Please?" Still nothing. "FINE, BE LIKE THAT."

I kicked the dirt, and laughed internally at the thought of the ground forming a boot and kicking me right back in the ass. The thought made me realize that I needed to be more careful with what I think, because that's what happened. Inuyasha thought it was hilarious. Kaede had a small smirk on her face, and Kagome and Sesshomaru sprang up with worry.

I helped myself up, refusing to take either of their hands. I wiped the dirt off of the back of my nice new kimono, sticking my tongue out at the ground. I had a feeling that it and I were gonna have some problems.

Knowing that I had some elemental power, we went to trying Air and Fire. Both ended up being flops like with water, and we all decided that it would be a good idea to call it a morning when the clouds began to turn dark with storm and the light snowflakes began cutting into our skin with the wind.

Half way back to the village, the snow started to become heavier. We would have picked up the pace, but I was so slow that we had to keep at the same steady pace. Only a few moments passed when it came to the point the I couldn't see six inches in front of me. Actually, I couldn't even see Kagome, who was the person walking directly in front of me. I turned around to ask Sesshomaru if he could just carry me so we would move faster, but I couldn't see him either.

"Guys?" I called uneasily over the sound of the whistling wind. No one answered.

I was lucky that my new Kimono was so warm, but my hands and feet were taking a beating. I tucked both of my hands in my sleeves.

"This isn't funny if this is a joke!" I yelled into the wind. Still no answer.

The snow was so thick, it was almost as if the trees had disappeared along with my group. I was standing alone in the middle of nothingness. I was lost.

Panic rose within me. I didn't like being left alone. Particularly in a blizzard. What was I going to do? I guess I would have to wait until the storm died down. The last thing I wanted to do was move away from the trail and get so lost no one would ever be able to find me.

I shivered a little, my face becoming numb. I guessed that the most logical thing would be to have shelter, so I started to dig my numb hands into the snow when I realized that I could use the earth.

"Earth," I said uneasily. "I really need your help. Please."

I closed my eyes and imagined the earth rising all around me to form a domed shelter with a small hole at the base for ventilation. When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a little house of earth just wide enough to lay down in. I breathed a sigh of relief and gave silent thanks to the earth for carrying out my request.

Just as I was about to lay down, my little earth home toppled around me. For a minute I thought that it was angry that I didn't give proper thanks, but I realized that the old woman standing not too far away from me was the culprit in destroying my shelter. Of course, nothing was ever as it seemed in this world, so she wasn't just a little old lady.

She had hair just as white as the snow, with two little black horns poking out of it at the top of her head. She was hunched over, like her back hurt or something, and I could clearly see that her nails were sharp and overgrown with a yellow, aged hue. Her clothes were tattered and ragged, like they hadn't been washed in years, and her eyes were almost as white as her hair.

And she had a sword in her hand.


	6. Chapter 6

This whole other world experience just seemed to be chock full of me being terrified. It was getting pretty old real fast.

The old woman raised her sword, which looked almost twice as long as she was tall. It looked like it had fangs all along the blade, like she had taken half of a jaw from some giant dog and fashioned it into a sword. I wouldn't have doubted that that was exactly what it was.

She caught me off guard by running up to me and sending me flying backwards. She was quick, and I barely even saw her in her sprint. She was also strong for her age-I never thought someone that looked older than Kaede could hit that hard. Though, I figure that most of that strength was momentum.

I hit the earth hard, going right through the foot of snow and hitting the earth. I was lucky I was on somewhat good terms with it, and it softened for me so that I didn't break anything when I landed. It still hurt like a bitch, though.

She came for me again, but I anticipated it and willed the earth to form a shield. It obeyed me, a sheet of earth rising and turning to stone in the old woman's path. She hit it, cracking the slab and making it crumble.

Thinking it wise to use this time to escape, I scrambled to my feet and started running. I could here her clamber to stand in the snow, and began making large slabs of stone after every few bounds I took. I hoped that I didn't run into anything as I ran, the snow storm even thicker than it was before.

A few moments passed and I could no longer hear the old lady trailing me. I stopped and listened through the howling wind. Beyond it and the sound of my thumping heart, there was silence.

I did a three-sixty, and there was still nothing in any direction. Between the massive flakes that bombarded me, it was gray and foggy. I turned back in the direction I thought I had been running in to find the old woman standing there. I jumped, startled, and started backing away.

She tsked me, shaking a finger on her free hand back and forth like I was some naughty child, and leapt at me. She cracked me on the back of the head with the blunt side of her sword, and my vision flashed white as I hit the ground. This time I was met with a completely solid ground and realized that she had ran me onto a lake that was frozen solid. I would have no earth to protect me.

I struggled to pushed myself onto my knees. My head throbbed painfully, and I had the suspicion that I had a concussion. The woman stood over me, chuckling in a raspy voice. "The world and power will be mine," she croaked.

I didn't really comprehend what she said, but I knew it meant that I was going to be killed. I had no earth and my head was throbbing too badly to make a run for it. This was the end.

I turned my eyes down to the frozen lake beneath me and sobbed, wishing I had spent more time practicing elements. Maybe I would have been able to learn to use the water so I could have protected myself. But I knew this woman had put me here because she knew I didn't have that power.

The woman cried out vengefully, and I waited for the blade to slice through the flesh on my neck, and to suddenly be in some other place. Heaven, maybe. Or maybe it would just be blackness, nothingness. A place where there was no feeling, no thought. Just a place of being.

Moments passed, and I was still alive. The woman screamed out some more, and being the curious person I am, I looked up. I was astonished to see that the ice was attacking her! The frozen lake seemed to have turned against her, icy spikes shooting up from beneath her to try and turn her into a shish-kabob. Even the snowflakes in the air were molding together to form frozen spikes that rained down from above her. While she was able to dance about and dodge the giant ones the lake produced, the ones that were produced from the air were so numerous that she wasn't able to escape them. They pierced her flesh continuously, and it made her leave a trail of blood that looked almost poetic in the white snow as she danced.

It was just weird, because I wasn't the one controlling the ice.

Finally, one of the spikes on the ground got her. It went right through her chest where her heart should be. She let out a curdled scream that died off before her entire body turned gray like a statue, and then she exploded into dust.

In the still raging storm, the figure of a fox approached me. My eyes had to be playing tricks on me, because when it got close, it was almost like it was a ghost. It looked like it was mostly composed of the snowflakes, the rest of it being a transparent blue-ish white.

"Well," the fox said. "What a pathetic human you are. I couldn't imagine why earth would agree to be your base element. I suppose one of us had to do it. Apparently she isn't enough for you, though. You're lucky I finally came around. You'd be dead now if it wasn't for me."

The fox stepped forward until his ghostly figure disappeared into me. The storm instantly calmed to the same light fall as it was when I first left the village. The lake I was on, I could see, was not very large. It was more like a medium sized pond. There must have been something that made everything seem larger that it really was, like the spell Hermione had on her bag in The Deathly Hollows to make it have infinite space.

Uneasily, I rose to my feet. I instantly fell back down, the throbbing in my head making me almost sure that I had a concussion.

"Stacey!" Sesshomaru called frantically. He came out of the tree line a few hundred feet away and was at my side almost instantaneously.

The look on his face was almost all worry, with a little bit of relief that I wasn't dead. I realized that I was crying from happiness that he was there, that everything would be okay now that he was with me again.

"What happened?" he asked, worry still consuming him as Kaede, Kagome and Inuyasha ran up to join us and make sure I was okay.

"I-I got attacked," I hiccuped. "Some old lady almost killed m-me. She threw me on the g-ground and hit me on the h-head..."

Sesshomaru immediately looked over my head which was growing increasingly sticky with blood. I could imagine how brown my hair was starting to turn. "It doesn't look so bad," Kagome said, looking over Sesshomaru's shoulder as he parted my hair in the examination. Just a cut. It will need stitches, but the bone is fine."

Sesshomaru wrapped his arms around me and his whole body shook, like he was sobbing. But when he spoke, his voice was ice. "I'm never letting this happen again."

"Did this woman say anything to ye?" Kaede asked as Sesshomaru lifted me bridal style.

"She said..." I began, trying to remember while I wiped away my tears and quell my sobs. My head was still foggy. "She said something about gaining power, I think. Power and the world. And then she tried to kill me."

Kaede's expression turned dark. "The demons are beginning to realize that the Caliri princess is here. Who knows how many know the full prophecy now. We can't let her out of our sight."

"What?" I asked.

"Part of the prophecy is that the flesh of the reincarnated princess can be devoured by a demon. If they are able to, they will gain all of the powers she possesses, and thus be able to control everything."

"That...does not sound fun for me," I said meekly.

"How did you kill her?" Kagome asked.

I recapped on how the ice started attacking her all by itself, and almost left out the part about the fox. But I figured it might be the result of brain damage and figured it might be good to tell the only people I knew to be somewhat experienced in medical emergencies.

"Can ye control water now?" Kaede asked with intense interest.

I thought a moment, then decided to try and will the falling snow to obey me. The snow collected in my hand and molded to form a miniature ice sculpture of an angel. I smiled at it before letting it to explode back into snowflakes that met the ground.

"That was the spirit of water that met you," Kagome said excitedly. "I guess the elements have to come to you?"

I shrugged, not knowing how else to respond. "I guess. That's what it sounded like the fox said."

"I suppose that it makes sense," Kaede said. "The Caliri had power over the elements because they had a pact with them. Someone who is not a direct descendant of the Caliri would have to go through the pact process before having power over them, or something similar to it. At least, that is what I believe."

"I don't want to have to go through a life-threatening situation like that again," I said adamantly.

"No," Sesshomaru agreed. "I won't let that happen."

"There might come a time when ye may be unable to help her," Kaede said wisely. "Like today. That force field was impenetrable."

"I still think that I could have found a weak spot," Inuyasha finally chipped in.

"The point is," Kagome interjected. "We won't always be there to help Stacey. We have to teach her how to fight. We have to practice with her so that she'll either be able to kill an attacker or stay alive until we get to her."

"Not today," Sesshomaru said adamantly.

"No," Kaede agreed. "Not for awhile. She needs to heal first."

We all walked back to the village, Sesshomaru's tight grip never loosening on me. I was officially being moved to Kaede's hut, which was the same one we had met in last night. Kagome and Inuyasha left to do their own thing, and Sessomaru undressed me so the blood stains could be washed out of my brand new kimono. Kaede had me lay on my stomach so that she could take a needle and thread to my wound, but not before Sesshomaru gave me a heaping dose of his blood that knocked me out.

Suddenly I was in a forest. Kind of like the one I had practiced the elements in, but a summer version of it. Flowers were in full bloom, and a sweet scent was carried on the warm breeze. It was very odd feeling, however. Like it wasn't something I would come up with for a dream. Alien was the only semi-accurate word I could come up with.

I turned around to see Sesshomaru laying against a mossy tree. Instincively, I went and sat next to him. "You try to be strong," I told him, blurting out something I've been curious about. "Emotionally, I mean. I can tell you've always been able to hide your emotions well, but you're not able to as well anymore."

"I was taught by someone I know that life needs protection," he said, his relatively blank expression not changing. "While most life I do not care about, it is hard now to control my expressions when I care about a life that is in danger."

"What are your feelings towards me?"

He turned and looked at me with that blank expression. "Is it not obvious?"

"I just wish that you were able to tell me the truth, and not just what my mind wants you to say," I sighed longingly, the realization that this was a dream coming to me.

"What do you think of me?"

"You are handsome and exotic. You have such amazing strength and character. At least, that's what I gather. I love you, and I don't know why. We know nothing about the other to even know if we have anything in common."

"We love the other. That is something we have in common."

I smiled at his answer. It sent a shiver through me, hearing him say he loved me (though be it an indirect admission). Sadly, it was just a dream though. I longed to hear him say that to my face.

"I wish I could hear you say that to me in real life. That you love me, I mean."

"Perhaps I will," he said thoughtfully.

"What's the scar on your arm from?"

"Some time ago, I got into a fight with Inuyasha. He cut off my arm, but I got it back a short while ago."

My mind didn't comprehend how a limb that was lost ages ago could e reattached. "How?"

He proceeded to explain about the run-in he had with his mother and her power to bring back souls from the depths of hell, and from the trials she put him through he got his arm back. Not to mention is new-found appreciation for the lives he finds himself protecting.

"I was not always the most noble character," he explained. "My goals have not changed so much as my reasons for achieving those goals."

"I guess that's why Inuyasha doesn't like you so much. He's been giving you weird looks when you hug and love on me though. I wonder why?"

A thoughtful expression came to his face. "I expect it to be because he is unused to me being...nice. I've been cruel for quite some time, and it would be alien for him to see me caring for anyone, particularly a human."

I could see why Inuyasha would give that look, then. "I guess that's a good reason..."

Sesshomaru placed a hand on my thigh, and I realized I was wearing jean shorts, a yellow tank top and matching Chucks. I was so pale, I looked like a ghost. "I find it odd how much I care for you," Sesshomaru said, switching us back to our earlier conversation. He looked down at me and studied my face. "I think you are beautiful. I have never found anyone I find to be as beautiful as you, and it is strange that it is a human I find attractive. Your skin is softer than any I have felt..." He began rubbing the skin on my thigh to emphasize his statement.

"I'm surprised that someone like you can even tolerate touching me," I said, turning my gaze away from him. "You're so strong, sweet, protective, seductive and handsome...I'm just so fat, and I don't think I'm that pretty at all. Someone like you could have anyone you wanted..."

"Don't ever say or think you aren't good enough for me," Sesshomaru almost seethed. "If anything, I am the one undeserving of someone as pure and wonderful as you are."

I looked up with him and gave him a sad smile that seemed to make his agitation melt away. "I know that demons are immortal though," I muttered, thinking about all the books I had to read in mythology class. "I'm human...I'll only be around for so long..."

Sesshomaru put a hand at the base of my neck and traced two circles on it with his nails. "These keep you young forever," he said, referring to the holes I had made him make when I forced him to bite my neck. I had completely forgotten I'd done that in my lust. "Demons, particularly canine and feline demons, puncture sensitive areas of a mate that they choose to bind them together as one. In the link, they share the strengths of the other. In humans, it instills longevity and immortality. You will live as long as I do. Of course, once you go beyond your normal life span, if I die, you will die also. If i die before your life span is up, you will simply turn immediately to your actual age. And since you are unable to mark me back, I do not obtain any of your strengths. It's customary in our breed to choose a mate with powers that benefit us."

I traced my bite mark like he had, reeling about the longevity I now had. I leaned up and kissed him in happiness, and suddenly I was thrown out of my dream and was awake, Sesshomaru's eyes staring right into mine.

"I had a nice dream about you," I told him, noting how I didn't feel groggy at all for once. There was a throbbing in the back of my head, and I knew it would start hurting real bad soon.

"Oh?"

"We just sat and talked," I explained. "And the clearing we were in was very pretty. It was wonderful."

"What did we talk about?"

I thought it was strange how he took such keen interest in a dream. I didn't think guys were into that thing. Then again, he might have just been being nice.

"Just mushy stuff, and mostly stuff about you."

"Did I tell you about the scar on my arm?"

"Yeah! How did you know?"

He gave me a weird look. "I had the same dream..."

I heard the mat on the door move, and turned my head (careful not to aggravate my stitches) to see Kagome poking her head in.

"I'm glad you're up!" she said brightly, opening the may further to let the dim light of another morning flood in. "It's time to start your practice."


	7. Chapter 7

Sesshomaru had dressed me back into my newly cleaned kimono while I was sleeping, so I was ready to start training. Well, sort of.

Even with a full day's rest, my concussion made me a little wobbly when I stood. With my balance being off, I was going to have a hard time focusing in more active movements, but everyone was sure that the quickest way to recover would be to move about.

Instead of going out into the woods again, we remained in the center of the village during practice. Everyone was just beginning to wake up and get to work on things that needed to be done, so the first hour or so we just practiced stances for hand to hand combat and how to throw a good punch. After the traffic died down and we had more room to practice, they began having me integrate the basic fighting moves they taught me with my elemental powers.

Kagome had fetched a few pots of rice paddy water to use so we didn't have to relocate so I had access to the two elements I knew how to use. Most of it was just becoming more acquainted with my elements by figuring out what I could make them do. I was already familiar with using water in its ice form, but I had a hard time getting the hang of its liquid form. Kaede repeatedly chastised me for freezing the water so it would be easier to use. I tried to explain that working with solid matter was easier than working with liquid because it was so loose, but she insisted that I keep moving it around in the air and making redundant shapes with it.

Eventually I was able to use water with relative easiness, and I was allowed to begin freezing it into shapes that could be used as weapons (much like the spikes used against that witch that attacked me yesterday). By the end of the day, my movement speed had increased and I could do simple fighting moves along side my elemental powers. I also discovered using certain martial arts moves and stances made using the elements easier. I figured I looked pretty badass doing it, especially for someone of my size.

I found my appetite much smaller than usual that evening, and barely touched the fish that was given to me. I was, however, forced to have a cup of Sesshomaru's pre-prepared blood to help with the healing of my stitches. Kaede of course inspected it after I was done eating and declared that my stitches would be able to come out while I slept this evening. All in all, it was a nice and productive day.

The rest of the week went pretty much the same way. I would be woken at the crack of dawn and then taken into the center of the village to practice. By the end of the week, I had virtually mastered using earth and water, and though I was not the best at fighting with my hands, my elemental skills more than made up for it.

On the last day I even took to playing with the small children of the village. I would make little ice sculptures for them, or mud castles big enough for them to play in, or even use the water in the air to create a mirror house for them to look at funny reflections. Rin was the only one who didn't take part, though she enjoyed watching the other children play with my creations.

The morning after my fiasco with the children, I decided to wake up before anyone else and take a trip down to the rice paddy fields. At first I thought it might be a bad idea, but it was still within the village and knew I could cry out for help if something happened. I was confident in my powers, however, and figured I would be able to handle any trouble by myself.

It was a little warmer that morning, fog rolling in from the woods as the humidity climbed with the rising sun. It most likely wouldn't break seventy degrees that day, but it most certainly would be warmer than it had been that entire week. It made me thankful that soon I wouldn't have to wear the heavy kimono anymore, and I could move around even easier when all the layers were taken away.

I stopped by the side of one of the paddies to look at my reflection in the dim light. I froze it so it was a little more reflective, and was appalled at the disastrous state of my hair. I hadn't been caring for it at all, and Sesshomaru had been too on edge to preen my curls that I hated so much but that he, for some reason, loved. I looked like Shirley Temple gone awry.

Something glinted and caught my eye from the center of the paddy I had been studying myself in. Curious, I removed my socks and shoes and lifted my kimono and tightened it around my thighs and fastened my sleeves. The water was freezing cold, and it made me shiver on the way to the center of the paddy.

It was a silver comb. It reminded me slightly of the comb that Rose had in Titanic, though this one was imbedded with sapphires, emeralds, amethysts, rubies and diamonds. It looked very new and expensive, something you would see on the vanity of a queen.

I dried it off on my kimono and tentatively stuck it in my hair and combed it through to see how well it worked, and it seemed to do well. I looked down at it to admire it one last time, then found myself in a completely different place when I looked back up.

"God damnit!" I yelled. "Is this kidnap Stacey week or something?!"

I knew that the comb had been carefully placed so I would see it and think it innocent, but it must have had some magic attached to it that transported me somewhere else.

My new surroundings consisted of rocks and darkness. It looked like a natural cave, with a bit of phosphorous lining stalagmites and stalactites so that there was a little light for me to see by-but it would take a bit for my eyes to adjust.

I walked over to the wall and just banged my head on it repeatedly. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," I muttered to myself. "I just HAVE to touch suspicious things. FML."

I didn't know what else to do, so I just sat down on a rock and waited for whatever it was that brought me here to show its face. I mean, if it wanted me that bad, it would come and find me. Or maybe whatever it was that wanted me here just wanted me dead, and it was just going to wait for me to get lost and starve to death. What a way to go...but hey! I might lose some weight and look good for my funeral.

I sighed dejectedly and pulled myself to my feet. I supposed that I would have to face the sucky situation and find out how it was that this person was going to kill me.

I chose to take the tunnel that stretched out to the left and followed it for quite some time before I realized I was running around in circles. Frustrated, I decided that I would make my own tunnel.

I moved the earth away from one side of the wall to make an indention a little bigger than I was, then just had at it. My tunnel eventually broke out into a large cavern. The only way out was the tunnel I had made myself, and when I turned around to look at it, it just so happened to be gone.

Great. I guess I found the place I needed to be to die.

The center of the cavern gave way, almost like the space beneath it had been hollow. But of course it wouldn't be that simple, and one of those monsters had to climb out. I was slightly scared by this, since I knew they were created specifically to kill me. This day just kept getting more fabulous by the minute.

"Nice kitty," I cooed hesitantly, backing away. It hissed the second it saw me, its bald ears flattening out in anger. "Good kitty...I'm not a Caliri...I'm just a regular, powerless German girl..."

It pounced at me, and I dove out of the way. The instant I hit the ground, I moved the dirt below me out of the way and kept going down. Since I could move the dirt quite easily because of my power, the beast had a hard time keeping up with me with its digging. When I felt far enough down, I switched from moving vertically to horizontally.

After some time, the rocky earth broke out into a vast forest. It threw me off a little bit, and I was unsure of what to do. The beast's cries echoed to me through my man-made tunnel, though, and spurred me into action.

All I could think to do was run. I knew personally how that girl in the dream felt, running for her life from one of those things.

I started to get a stitch in my side, but I kept going. I cursed myself on not trying harder to lose weight. I would definitely be trying after this.

Trees started toppling in the distance behind me. It had broken free of the tunnels like I had, and thankfully I had a head start of about a mile and a half. But in the open was the beast's territory, and it would be gaining ground fast.

A large river stopped me in my tracks. It must have been at least thirty feet wide, and there was a waterfall some ways up stream that looked about just as tall. Instinctively, I ran along the bank downstream, careful not to go too far down so that I would get caught carrying out my plan. When I decided I was down far enough, I stopped and froze a path on the surface of the water that stopped halfway across, then turned and led upstream.

Quickly, I leapt onto my frozen path and followed it back to the waterfall, careful to melt the ice that I left behind. Hopefully the beast would lose track of me in the water and think I floated downstream.

I clung to the rock wall behind the waterfall, my heart pounding so hard that it overpowered the sound of water beating on water. Anguished cries echoed through the trees and water, and I hoped dearly that it meant that thing had lost my trail.

There was nothing to do but hide in the freezing waterfall. I was too terrified to move, afraid that if I poked my head out that it would see me and rip me limb from limb.

I used what little strength I had left to will the rocky wall I clung to to make an indent that I could sit in. I replaced some of the rock back so that there was only a fist-sized hole at the entrance for ventilation. While I sat in the semi-darkness of my shelter, I took all of the water off of my hair and kimono and place it back into the river so I wouldn't be freezing cold.

An hour or so passed, and I began to feel more at ease that I was safe. I didn't realize how long I had been in those tunnels, but there was orange light spilling through my little hole. The sun was already getting ready to set.

I thought about Sesshomaru and Kagome and everyone, wondering how worried they would be. They were probably frantic, maybe having found my shoes and socks by that paddy, but no other trace of me. If I made it out of this situation alive, at least I have the comb as a souvenir of almost dying. Again.

I couldn't help but still linger on Sesshomaru. I wanted him to hold me. I wonder if he was looking for me? A pang of sadness welled up inside of me. I would never know how he really felt, if how he acted was compulsion or love. Or maybe he was just deprived and acted on how it would benefit him most.

I let out a soft sob, wiping my tears on the sleeve of my kimono. I was hungry and tired, and I wanted to be back in my little apartment with my friend. I wanted her to yell at me like she always did for not dressing like I should, for always being gloomy and depressed. I wanted my own futon bed again in the heated apartment, and actual food-not fire cooked fish. I wanted the stress of nursing school, and the heaps of homework that came with it. I wanted my cellphone so I could call my grandma and tell her I loved her.

I wished desperately that this was all just some bad dream, and I was really just asleep in my Medical Terminology class.

But the sound of desperate growling and scraping pulled me our of my thoughts. The beast had found me, and was yowling as it tried to break through the rock to get at me.

There was nothing I could do but sit there as it scraped and pounded on the entrance to my shelter. I was exhausted and didn't even have the strength to reinforce it. I just lay down on my side in defeat and let my mind wander into storybook land.

I heard the wall just begin to crumble when the scraping stopped. A few moments passed when howls of pain met my ears. Curious, I sluggishly crawled over to my ventilation hole and peered out.

I could barely see what was going on past the cascading waterfall, but I could make out the hulking shape of that thing fighting smaller figures. I danced about in a clunky display, trying to dodge the attacks of its adversaries, but blood was spraying everywhere and I could tell it was losing the battle. It leapt in the air in one last attempt to dodge an attack before exploding into hundreds of bloody chunks.

"Stacey!" It was Kagome's voice, calling out for me. I was too tired to call back. I could only whimper from the pain in my feet.

A hand stuck through my ventilation hole and grabbed the edge, yanking it so that it finally crumbled and exposed my shelter with me laying helplessly inside.

Sesshomaru's face was the first thing I saw, and utter happiness filled me. His face, however, was as blank as the first time I saw him. I was unsure what that meant, but I was too tired to question it.

He grabbed the collar of my kimono roughly and pulled me out of my hole. We exited through the side of the waterfall so we didn't get soaked, and he nearly threw me onto the ground just as Kagome and Inuyasha ran up to us.

"What did you do that for?" Kagome asked angrily. "You hurt her!"

Sesshomaru just looked down at me with a cold expression, like I was some bug, someone so beneath him that I wasn't even worth to look at. And that hurt me more than anything he could do physically.

What did I do wrong?

"Get up," he spat.

I obeyed his command and staggered to my feet. He put a hand around my neck-very gently at first-and tightened his grip as the seconds passed until he was outright choking me. I didn't have any energy still, so I just let him do it. Surprisingly, Inuyasha was the one that tried to step in to my rescue, but Sesshomaru knocked him back easily like he was swatting a fly. Kagome hesitated before raising her bow to him.

"Let her go!" she shouted at him.

He didn't even spare her a glance and continued to choke me. My vision was starting to dim, and I felt myself beginning to lose consciousness.

Kagome loosed her arrow at his feet as a warning shot and reloaded.

"Let her go or the next one will be in your head."

Sesshomaru finally let me go, and I realized his hand had been supporting me as I toppled to the ground coughing. Kagome rushed to my side to make sure I was okay, and Inuyasha had finally recovered and rushed over as well. He stood between Sesshomaru and Kagome and I, acting as a barrier.

"What was that about?" Inuyasha asked in an acidic tone.

"My actions need not be explained to you," Sesshomaru replied coldly.

"I thought you had changed for a minute," Inuyasha told him. "I knew you hadn't though. You're still the same no-good asshole. You can't be compassionate to save your life. You'll be a cold-blooded, emotionless prick for the rest of your life."

Sesshomaru glared at him, the whites of his eyes turning red. "You're in no place to judge anyone," he seethed. "You killed the one you love, and she in turn made sure to curse you as her last action."

"I didn't kill her!" Inuyasha nearly screamed. "That was Naraku! I've done nothing but care for people! You're the one who's so emotionally distraught, you don't know what live is! You probably have to pay women to sleep with you because you're so...so..."

"Socially inept," Kagome offered.

"Yeah!" Inuyasha continued. "Socially inept! And I wouldn't doubt that you've raped women to get it, if you've even ever had it at all! You're a no-good crook, and you don't deserve the love that she has to offer if that's how you're going to treat her."

Sesshomaru was trembling with anger, and it looked like he was starting to change shape. "How dare you say those things to me," he growled. He was definitely changing somehow, his face beginning to elongate. "You do not know the trials I have been put through nor my feelings. My actions have meaning behind them, but you wouldn't understand because you cannot even protect your own woman from the things she puts herself through!"

He was turning into a dog, it seemed, and his size was growing by the second. So, he was a dog demon with the power to transform? Obviously it was triggered by anger, and he meant to either maim or kill when he finished transforming. Inuyasha didn't seem to be scared at all, and neither did Kagome. But I was. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. I was already in an emotional state, Sesshomaru having turned on me for some reason. I assumed that meant his love was not there, and maybe never had been. So I would turn on him right back.

I was so weak, but I managed to stand and concentrate. I mentally asked for strength from the two elements I had a pact with, and suddenly I felt like I was the earth and water, like it would be effortless to move with them.

I stomped on the ground, and a cylindrical column of rock about half as big around as I was shot up from behind Sesshomaru and cracked him on the back of the head. It immediately stopped him from transforming, and he fell to the ground-much to Kagome and Inuyasha's shock.

Sesshomaru spun around after leaping up, his expression filled with anger. He started to stomp towards me, like he was going to backhand me for being so disobedient, and I gracefully spun with a pillar of water, and shot out hundreds of frozen spikes at him.

He howled and lunged at me, but I ducked and hit him in the face with another column of rock. I saw blood spurt from his nose as I switched to bringing up more water. I froze it into a perfect cylinder and then used it to shoot off circular blades of ice. He barely was able to dodge them, still disoriented from the hit to his face, and some of his hair was cut off.

He tried to charge me again, but I decided to end it and got a hefty amount of water and simply encased him in it. No matter where he moved, the water bubble would move with him. At least until he drowned.

I had won the fight, and Sesshomaru knew it. He also knew that I was serious about letting him drown. It ached inside of me to have to put him through it-but I was not going to be in an abusive relationship, and I wasn't going to let him hurt people I knew cared about me.

Falling to his knees, he gave me a defeated expression that let me know he forfeit and I had won. Hesitantly, I let the water become itself again and it fell to the ground with a big splash! Sesshomaru coughed, gasping for his breath.

I turned to Kagome and have a sad smile. "Come on, let's go," I said, waving to Inuyasha as well. "I want to go home."

I threw a despising look at Sesshomaru, who stated back with an emotionless expression, his eyes still filled with feelings that I couldn't read. I could only imagine there being malice and hatred there. At least he knew I'd kill him if I ever saw him again, and knew not to follow.

But Inuyasha put me on his back, knowing I was exhausted, and the three of us trekked back to the village by the light of the setting sun. A hell storm had to greet us when we returned, though.


	8. Chapter 8

I was able to catch some sleep on the way back, Inuyasha's careful and even steps rocking me into slumber. I had been teleported quite a ways away from the village, and whatever had enchanted the comb must have wanted to make sure I'd be alone long enough to die. I just wondered how on earth the gang had found me so quickly.

When we arrived back at the village, it was already beginning to turn dark the next day. It had taken a full night and day to walk back, proving how far away I had been teleported (and how quickly demons could run). But, when we arrived, the sound of all hell breaking loose woke me.

Fires were sprouting up everywhere, a few hits already completely engulfed. The villagers were running about in a panic, some trying to put out the fires with paddy water.

"What the hell is going on?" Inuyasha shouted over the uproar.

Kaede ran up to us when she caught sight of us and filled us in on the situation. "A demon is attacking the village," she exclaimed, readying her bow. "We have been trying to fight it off for hours now, but we can't hit it!" A bolt of blue lightening shot down at an angle, hitting a hut that had just had a fire distinguished. It burst back up into flame.c"Stacey, can ye put out the fires?"

I nodded. "I'm sure I can," I said confidently. "I've rested well enough."

Inuyasha and Kagome hurried off with Kaede to fight whatever it was attacking the village, leaving me to take care of the fires. I felt the water in the paddies on the far side of the village, interconnecting with it so that I would have the strength to move large quantities of it. With one deep breath, I lifted my arms and felt the weight of the water as it lifted from the earth.

Gracefully, I danced about, directing streams of water with my hands onto the huts. Fire after fire was extinguished. Whatever it was that had been setting the fires was trying to keep up with me, lighting bolts shooting from various places in the sky to set fire to extinguished homes. I was too quick though, and eventually all of the fires were put out and the lightening ceased. I must have waited for at least five minutes, thousands of pounds of water surrounding me as I anxiously awaited another bolt of blue lightening that did not come.

I relaxed and sent the remaining water back to the paddies. But I shouldn't have done that, because something came and hit me on the back of the head, sending me into unconsciousness.

When I awoke, I was in a dungeon-like room. It was almost pitch black except for a torch that illuminated a small area around me. My arms were shackled above my head to the wall I lay against. I could see some sort of furniture on the other side of the enormous room, but I couldn't make out what any of it was. The lonely torch's light didn't reach far enough.

"What. The. Fuck." I was irate at this point. "Did I not JUST get back from being kidnapped?"

I jiggled my shackles to see if they were weak at any point, but they felt and sounded like brand new chains. God damnit!

In fact, as I looked around me, the floor and wall was made out of metal. I wouldn't be able to use earth to fight. And there was no water, so I wouldn't be able to use it either. Touché, unknown captor. Touché.

The screeching of a metal door opening echoed throughout my glamorous dungeon. The clank of it slamming shut was followed by soft footsteps, and a soft, malicious chuckle. The figure stopped just outside of the light of the torch, ad all I could see was a tall silhouette.

"How innocent you are," he said, and instantly I recognized the voice. My jaw fell open slightly in astonishment. "And so stupid."

Sesshomaru stepped forward and I saw how coldly he regarded me. "S...Sesshomaru...?"

His neutral lips turned up at the corners to form a sneer. "Surprised, are we?"

My heart dropped into my stomach. I had a mixture of feelings-I was happy to see him in general, I always would be because of the place he had in my heart. I would never be able to not love him, no matter what happened. But I was also angry that he would still be there after how he treated me, and also confused as to him being here.

"W-what's going on?"

He let out a creepy laugh, and it bounced all around the room. I shrank back against the cold wall and his eyes studied me. They lingered on the part in my kimono above my breasts, which was askew and revealed a hefty bit of cleavage.

Still with that creepy smirk, Sesshomaru bent down and traced my cleavage with one of his nails. "These," he said wistfully, putting the top of my kimono down around my shoulders so my breasts were completely revealed. He cupped one in each hand. "These are mine..."

I shrank back at his touch. Some part of me got a thrill from his touch, but I didn't want him. Not like this, not after how he treated me. And certainly not now that he was holding me captive in a dungeon. And it just didn't feel right, like he had changed, or was a different person. He wasn't the guy that I woke up to in the woods.

He sucked on my nipples, wrapping his arms around my waist to bring me closer to him. I accidentally let out a moan as he worked his way up to my neck. My neck was so sensitive, and I'm sure he remembered that. He worked his way slowly around, making sure to leave hickeys all the way across. He finally arrived at the opposite side of my neck, but when he pressed his lips to my skin, pain shot through me and I screamed. He recoiled as well, cursing under his breath. "What the hell was that?"

He leaned in and examined my neck and cursed again. "I can't believe she was marked so soon," he mumbled. "Well, no matter. I can still have fun torturing you. After the tiff, I doubt you'll be rescued this time."

He stood, not bothering to redress me for decency, and walked back into the gloom. There was some clanging and scuffling before he returned into my area of light with a whip. The end had frayed strips of leather with shards of metal embedded in them. I couldn't help but wonder if this was some sort of bad S&M movie or something.

He unshackled my feet so he could flip me over. It made my arms cross at a weird angle. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. He didn't bother lowering the back of my kimono to expose my skin, he just had at it.

I could here my own cries echo through the large room. It was an alien sound, hearing myself scream and sob like I was listening to someone else. The pain was overwhelming, and eventually I began to lose track of time. I could feel my back becoming hot and sticky, and I slowly grew cold. The metal floor started spinning and the light of the torch grew dim. At some point I stopped crying out completely because I was so weak, and the lashes stopped.

"It's no fun when you don't make any noise." Sesshomaru's voice sounded far away. "And it would be in bad taste if I let you die this soon..."

Through the numbness, I felt him pulled my shredded kimono down around my shoulders so he could examine the wounds on my back. He mumbled some stuff under his breath that I couldn't understand in my delirious state, and he unbound my hands. I fell to the floor on my side, the pain from my wounds not even phasing me anymore. Sesshomaru proceeded to rip my kimono off of me, then replaced the shackles around my ankles so I couldn't snoop around the room and find a way to escape. Not like I could in the shape I was in.

But he left me lying there on the cold floor in the nude. I was vaguely aware of a little yellow person-type-thing sitting in front of me, and it spoon fed me some kind of gruel-like substance. It wiped a lot of it off of the side of my face (I was so tired, I couldn't swallow anything) before it started holding my mouth closed and rubbing my throat to get it to go down. After I was fed, it sat behind me and began cleaning my wounds.

I was alone again when it had finished. I didn't know if I slept any, or how long I had lain there when Sesshomaru came back. I was still in the exact same position he left me in when he re-entered, and by the growl he gave I didn't think he was pleased by it.

He grabbed me by the throat and slammed me against the wall. My feet barely touched the ground as he held me as high as my chains would let me go. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to look him in the face as he suffocated me like he did next to that river. I was scared this time, though. I could feel the feat come over me, that he might really kill me this time. The fear, coupled with the fact I hadn't gone to the bathroom since a pit stop Inuyasha had made on the way back to the village, made my bladder let everything it had in it go.

Sesshomaru let out a disgusted cry and dropped me. I crumpled into a puddle of my own urine and he cursed and backed away. "You're going to clean up your mess, you disgusting whore," he growled, throwing a towel at me that looked like it had dried blood on it. I wouldn't doubt that it was my own. "It better be gone by the time I come back."

He turned and left, leaving me feeling very degraded. Sluggishly, I sat myself up and mopped up my pee with the dirty towel. I tossed it to the side when I was done (not very far-I was still very weak) and lay back down on my side and hoped that the lacerations on my back would stop hurting.

A very long time went by of me being alone. I became vaguely aware that it was longer than maybe I should have been alone. The pain this time kept me awake, even with how exhausted I was. It made me somewhat delirious, but at some point I was sure that it had been more than twenty-four hours had passed since anyone had come down. Then thirty-six, and then forty-eight. I had used the bathroom several times, my urine smelling strongly because of dehydration and my throat like sandpaper. My stomach made growling noises and pained me with hunger.

I let myself drift off into my mind when it all didn't bring me back into reality. I had given up on myself, sure that I was going to die any moment. My wounds were infected, no doubt. Some of them had been soaking in stale urine, and I wouldn't doubt that the infection had reached my blood at that point. I was in pain all over.

It was hour fifty-something when I heard the metal door slam open, and I dreaded what Sesshomaru was going to do to me this time. I lay motionless, ready to accept what death blow he had so I could be rid of all the pain and worry. But instead of some angry growl, or more cursing, I heard a pained cry-something someone hurt more than the world could throw at them would choke out.

I wanted to turn and see what was happening, but I was far, far too weak to move. I couldn't even blink.

The shackles around my ankles were cut off of me, and I was lifted onto Sesshomaru's lap. He turned my head to look up at him, and he had the most hurt expression I had ever seen in my life. It was like his very soul was breaking as he looked at me, the emotion unable to stay behind the mask he clung to. I could see my reflection in his eyes, and I looked dead. I was pale, my hair looked like a bird's nest and it was soaked in blood and urine, gruel was still caked to my face from over two days ago, and my own eyes looked empty-like there was no one there. Mostly likely, it was very close to there not being anything there. I had been feeling death creeping up on me for quite awhile.

Tears rolled down Sesshomaru's face as he cradled me, and it gave me a very confused feeling. Why was he crying? Surely he was not regretting the things he had willingly done to me?

Sesshomaru bit his wrist to get his blood flowing and held it to my mouth. I couldn't swallow it, and it just spilled over the side of my mouth. He let out a choked sob before removing his wrist from my mouth. At this point, my vision was starting to fade to black.

"Stacey," he choked out. "I'm sorry for choking you. I was angry that you had left without me, and that it resulted in you getting taken. Can you hear me? Please don't die! That wasn't me that was torturing you down here, it was another demon looking to take your power." He hiccuped, stroking my face. I couldn't feel it. "I love you..." I felt the phrase sink into me as I went out completely. And then I was in a place of nothingness.


	9. Chapter 9

-Sesshomaru-

I was not proud of my actions. My mother had taught me that life was fleeting and precious, and that those that were weaker than I was needed to be protected. After she had brought Rin back to life, I saw the truth in that. But I suppose that old habits die hard.

My anger took the better of me when I grabbed Stacey by the throat. She took it complacently, but I felt through the mark I gave her that she was in pain, and that she was surprised, and scared. I could not help but find my sadistic side loving it, and it made my grip on her tighten.

My half brother charged at me, and I swatted at him absently as I saw him in the corner of my eye. I did not mean to hit him as hard as I did-I was so distracted that it just happened. The priestess held her arrow to me then and commanded that I put her down. I actually did not hear her-I was too wrapped up in what Stacey had been feeling. She was losing consciousness, and I knew I needed to let go, but I had been who I was for so long I was still enjoying the pleasure of hurting someone weaker than I was, even though it killed me to see her like that.

The priestess loosed her arrow at my feet and gave me another warning, to which I obeyed. Stacey fell to the ground in a heap from weakness. Seeing that made me feel worse about having done it.

Inuyasha had recovered by then and began a petty argument with me, though his words sent me into a rage. I felt myself losing control as he bombarded me with words on how I was not worthy of Stacey and her love. Few things angered me, and to say that I should not be able to have the best thing in this world from the best person in this world angered me beyond explanation.

But then I felt myself. Something had hit me in the back of the head. I spun around angrily to see what had attacked me simply to find Stacey with a look I thought I'd never see directed at me. I could even feel her emotion pouring through the mark I had given her. She was beyond angry, just as I had been at Inuyasha's insults. She loathed me, and it made me just that much more irrationally angry. So I lunged at her.

We danced for a few moments, though halfway through I realized I would be unable to best her. Her physical strength was virtually non-existent, but with two elements on her side it would be virtually impossible to get at her without myself having the element of complete surprise. My own feelings were also affecting my fighting. I would not be able to injure her, not now after I had already almost choked her to death. She was my mate, and I loved her beyond anyone's knowing. I wouldn't let myself harm her again.

She had encased me in a giant bubble of water, and I would drown if she kept it up long enough. The look of utter hatred for me that lay on her face conveyed that she was willing to do it, so I fell to my knees and tried to give her a look that let her know that she had won. I felt her hesitation and surprise at it, but she finally let me free. I coughed and gasped in the air as she turned to the priestess and requested that they leave. I began to rise to accompany them, but as Inuyasha lifted her to his back, she gave me the most abominable look she could muster. She needn't have given it to me as a deterrent, because the mark let me know I was not to follow. There was so much anger and hatred flowing through that it was almost unbearable for me to feel.

After they had left me, I had never felt the pangs of loneliness as they washed over me then. I did not know what compelled me to love this woman. But I loved her since the moment I saw her two weeks ago. That helpless, bloody form I had saved from that beast was mine. That was my mate, and I wanted no other.

I let out a chuckle as I thought of my father. How ironic that I turned out to be just like him-a powerful demon that fell for a weak human. Somehow, I think he knew that it would happen, that he left me Tensaiga because he knew I would realize too late the place they had in my heart because of denial. Thinking about it, that was probably why he had left my mother that orb, as well. The trials she had put me through made it fully apparent how attached I was to Rin, as much as I hated to admit it.

But now...it was unlike anything I had ever felt. Since those trials, I had such a hard time masking my face from the world like I normally did. It was never that hard-my emotions almost never got out of hand. But this woman, she had ruined me. I loved her beyond comprehension. There was nothing I would not do for her. She was perfection to me, even in her weakness. This pang that I felt, knowing how she felt towards me because of what I had done, it literally tore me from the inside out.

And for the first time in my life, I cried. This foreign stinging in my eyes grew until wetness flowed from them. What had I done? I had harmed the fragile life I vowed myself to protect. And I had turned that life, my dearest love, against me. I was every bit as despicable as my brother had accused me of being.

I was so numb, I must have sat there for hours upon hours. The sunset faded into night and then back again before I finally moved. When I rose to my feet, I looked into the distance to the setting sun. I stared directly at it for quite awhile, more tears springing to my eyes. I was unsure if the tears were from staring at the sun or my own emotions again, though I suspected some of both. I had never felt such a pain in my life before that moment. No physical injury would ever compare to it, and I wished death upon myself to end it. Though it was a pain I deserved for the wrong I had done to the person I never should have harmed.

I had not even told her that I loved her.

Despair came over me once again, and it almost sent me back to my knees. By this time it had grown dark again. I would have stayed there longer, perhaps for eternity, if a sense of urgency had not hit me. For a moment I thought it was my own feeling, but I realized that it was Stacey's.

I was in a panic almost instantly. Was she in danger? Did she need help? I studied the emotion closer. The one thing I did not like about her being a human is that I was not able to know what was going on through the mark of the mate, I could only feel strong emotions that she felt and her general location. She was back at the village, of that I was sure. I immediately began traveling in that direction as fast as I was able. I just needed to make sure she would be fine.

About half an hour went by when the feeling of urgency died down, and I slowed some. It reassured me that everything would probably be fine, but I still traveled quickly. I had to see for myself. But there was suddenly a split second of intense surprise, pain and fear, and then I felt nothing.

Something was horribly wrong. I could not feel where she was, so she was either unconscious or dead. What had happened? What was going on? Where was she?

I immediately picked up the pace again, and I arrived at the village in half an hour. Never had I ran so fast in my long days of life.

As I arrived, the village looked beaten and worn. Holes were everywhere in the little huts the humans lived in, and many were covered in dirt and ash. My brother and the priestess were conferring with the old woman who ran the village, and I made my way over to them.

"Where is she?" I asked them. I was surprised at how cracked and upset my own words sounded. I almost didn't recognize it as my own for a moment.

They even gave me a surprised once-over. I must have looked disheveled from my sulking. "You of all people would know," Kagome replied evenly. "We were actually considering finding you so you could tell us."

"She's unconscious!" I nearly screamed, my emotions getting out of hand. She was in trouble then, if she was not here. "She's in danger! What happened here?!"

"Again," the old woman began. "Ye would be the one to tell us that. Your dragon demon was the one who attacked the village. Rin identified it. A-un, I think she called it."

That caught me off guard. "That is impossible. My beast listens to no one but Rin and I. And I have not called him in over a month."

"Well Rin certainly did not call it to attack the village," the old woman persisted. "Who else could it have been?"

A sinking feeling came over me, when suddenly I felt the mark slowly giving me my mate's location. It was very vague, and I only knew the direction to head in that would lead me to her. I remained motionless to concentrate on everything she was feeling. Anger, annoyance, growing fear.

I leapt off towards the north, and was aware of my brother following behind me. Stacey's emotions kept rolling over me. I could only guess what was going on when her fear rolled into a wave of astonishment. Fear and pain immediately returned, and it made me frantically disoriented. What was happening to her? Was she being tortured? The pain was eventually unbearable, even for myself. Exhaustion and indifference washed over her, a feeling of loneliness...I had to ignore the feelings and emotion as I concentrated on her location.

I went around in circles for quite some time, my brother and his priestess getting agitated. I had to hold up my hand to silence their accusations quite a few times before I realized that I had found her location, but it was underground.

"Have you seen any cave entrances or openings in the ground?" I had to ask them. I had been so focused on looking for her that I wasn't looking for any suspicious entrances.

"No, we've just been following you," Inuyasha replied. "Why?"

"Stacey is right here," I said, turning to them. "She's underground."

We had been going for at least 36 hours straight. My brother looked a little worn, and I imagined his human was exhausted. I, however, only felt the slipping of my mate. Her pain, her tiredness, the feeling of death coming over her...

We immediately began searching for underground entrances. Inuyasha and I started at the same point then worked our way in a spiral pattern out, turning over every bush, tree and rock. I would have liked to take credit in finding the entrance, but it was Inuyasha who found it about a mile and a half out from the starting point.

It was a hole in the ground just big enough for one person at a time to fit through, and it was hidden under a mossy log. I went down first, followed by Inuyasha. His priestess then came as well, and he caught her gracefully with one arm.

It would have been pitch black down there for any human, but my brother and I had special eyes the could see just fine. He had to take the priestess's hand and lead her as we traversed in the dark.

If I had not have been linked to my mate, we would have gotten lost. The tunnels were vast and numerous, with a vile overpowering scent wafting in the air. Inuyasha made a snide, sarcastic comment on how he though I smelled bad but that it was no contest to this stench, and I ignored it.

I was unsure of how long we spent in the tunnels. It was quite a few hours. I knew the general direction in which to go, but the tunnels were so twisting it was impossible to tell which way they would end up going.

We eventually found ourselves deep within the ground, in a cavern lit dimly with torches. There were no more tunnels, just one heavy metal door on the opposite side of the room.

That's where Stacey was. And she was dying.

I began to cross, but was met with the ghostly figure of a man with long orange hair. His clothes were strikingly ordinary and earth colored, and it clashed with his hair in an awful display. His eyes were blue, which threw his color scheme off even more.

"A shame you're too little too late," he said maliciously. "I was going to have more fun with her. I didn't expect you to come for her, but I guess I was wrong. At least I'll get the satisfaction of seeing you watch as your loved one dies, then. I just wish I could have taken that power. Oh, well. At least if I can't have it, no one will." His form changed to an exact replica of myself. "The best thing is, as she looks at you in her dying seconds, she'll be under the impression you were the one doing all those horrible things to her!" And then he faded away.

I hurried across the cavern and beat the door in. I was met with a loud clang as it slammed against the wall. The instant it flung open, I saw her frail figure lying motionlessly in the light of a lone torch. She was naked, and very pale. Blood pooled around her body from the lacerations in her back.

I choked back a sob and ran to her, taking her almost lifeless form into my arms after breaking the shackles around her ankles with my nails. I turned her over so I could see her face, hoping to see life there-but she was virtually dead.

To see her like that, it would stain and burn into my retinas for the rest of my immortal life. Her eyes were not glowing and filled with life like I knew them to be. They were dull and still, staring up and seeing nothing. Her beautiful golden curls I loved so much were mashed and stained with blood, the powerful stench of urine rolling off of it. There were no words to describe the horrible feeling I had.

I felt a very distant feeling of confusion as tears rolled down my cheeks for the third time ever. She didn't know why I was crying? How could she not? I loved her with every fiber of my being. To see her like this was a worse punishment than death, or eternal damnation even. How could she go without understanding, without knowing?

**"Stacey," I managed to say. "I'm sorry for choking you. I was angry that you had left without me, and that it resulted in you getting taken. Can you hear me? Please don't die! That wasn't me that was torturing you down here, it was another demon looking to take your power." I let out a strange, pained sound and stroked her cold face. "I love you..." A faint feeling of love came to me, and I sobbed as it dimmed out completely and left me with nothing but a body with eyes that stared blankly.**

My brother put a hand on my shoulder in an awkward attempt to console me. "I'm sorry," was the only thing he could say. I knew that it meant that he was not only offering condolences for my loss, but that it was an apology for what he had told me when we had rescued Stacey back by the falls.

I shrugged his hand away, placing Stacey gently onto the ground before rising. I took out Tensaiga, and saw the little ghostly imps wrapping her body in chains so that they could take her soul. I swung at them maliciously, hoping very dearly that it was a painful death-or whatever it was-for them. It should have been just like with Rin.

But after the imps had gone, nothing happened. Her wounds were not healed. She did not suddenly twitch to life. She remained pale, mutilated and motionless. And it hit me that she would not be returning to me in this method.

I dropped Tensaiga and fell to my knees, crying out painfully over her lifeless body. Again, no words were able to express this feeling. I wanted death so that I would not have to live without her, so that I wouldn't have to go on knowing that her death was my own fault, to exist with her mutilated image burned into the back of my very soul. To know I would never be able to make love to her, never be able to settle, to give her children that I'm sure she wanted, to have a wedding ceremony, to be a grandmother.

Inuyasha and the priestess sat on either side of me, staying with me as the tears flowed down my face uncontrollably, as sounds escaped my mouth that I never thought I would make.

Slowly, I gathered her broken body back into my arms. I cradled her tightly against me, rocking back and forth as I kissed her head. "Stacey..." I sobbed over and over again. I didn't know what else to do but sit there and hold her. I had half a thought of just sitting there until I died. Or of taking another of my swords and ending it right there.

But then I had a faint thought, that maybe there was another way, that maybe it was the end.

I rose to my feet, being extra careful with Stacey's body held against mine, and turned to Inuyasha. I could only imagine how I looked to him. He probably never thought to see me like that-and honestly, I had not thought of it either. "I'm going to bring her back," I told him. "And...I may need your help."

Inuyasha offered me a surprised look, but his priestess answered for him. "Of course we'll help."

And for the first time in over two days, I felt optimistic.


	10. Chapter 10

-Sesshomaru-

I was not going to carry my mate's lifeless body around like it was. She deserved better than to be carried around naked, bloody and dirty. We were very much in a hurry-none of us were aware of the rules dealing with resurrection, so the sooner we revived her the better-but Stacey had the right to keep her dignity. Not only that, but it pained me beyond anyone's knowing having to look down at her in the state she was in, knowing that it was my fault that it happened, that I was not there to protect her...

We immediately went back to the village. The old woman who ran it greeted us, though her face fell into despair when she caught sight of myself holding Stacey. She ran her hands over my mate's face, mumbling some prayer as she did so.

"Aye, a shame," she whispered. "May mercy be shown by the demon that took her power..."

"A demon didn't take her power," the young priestess interjected. "She passed away by blood loss, infection and exhaustion."

"Oh? Then we can have a burial for her in peace and send her spirit to eternal rest."

"No!" I nearly screamed in panic. I quickly composed myself, trying to maintain the mask I'd carried for so long. "I brought her here so she can get cleaned and dressed. I am taking her to resurrect her."

"Ye wish to bring her back to a world of suffering?" the woman asked. "After all the trials she was put through, ye wish her to suffer more?"

"You're an expert on this prophecy thing," my brother suddenly said. "She's supposed to decide our fate, isn't she? How can she do that when she's dead? I think Sesshomaru is justified in bringing her back, even though he wants her back for a different reason."

The old woman remained quiet a moment, considering his words. "Aye, I suppose ye may be right."

She motioned for us to follow her, and we ended up in her living quarters. She called for Rin to bring her a large bowl or tub of clean water, and Rin obeyed obediently.

The old woman pulled out a small wooden chest that she had hidden beneath her floor boards, and within it lay a beautiful fall-decorated summer kimono. It was a wonderful shade of yellow-orange, and it had vibrant orange and purple leaf decorations in clusters near the collar and bottom hem. The obi was the same shade of purple as the leaves that decorated the kimono itself, and the second layer was also that hue. "My older sister made this by hand," the old woman said, straightening some wrinkles in it. "I planned on keeping this. But I'm getting so old...just try not to rip this one."

After we had gotten Stacey cleaned and dressed, I noticed that it was a short-cut kimono that was just long enough to cover her behind. I silently chastised myself for thinking it attractive on a corpse, but it was my mate and my feelings for her would be hard to change-alive or not. I made a mental note to myself, however, to obtain more short-cut clothes similar to it for her after she was brought back.

I was the one who had cleaned my mate's hair, and I combed it with careful precision so that her natural curls came out in flawless ringlets. The old woman had two purple hair ribbons stashed within her wooden chest that accented the kimono, and I tied one on a ringlet on either side of Stacey's face. With the ribbons in her hair, she looked very young. Granted, she was young anyhow, though she looked very much like a child then, particularly because she looked now like she was sleeping. Cleaning her up took away the worn, beaten look she had about her and turned her into pure innocence.

We wasted no time and set off immediately. The trip itself was uneventful, which was a surprise to me. I suppose that I should have expected as much-Stacey was no longer alive to be fed upon for power, and most demons would not attack another demon stronger than itself. I believe that I had wished for the journey to be more challenging, in hopes of releasing the emotions within me that I was trying so hard to keep under control. Even then, every time I looked down at Stacey in my arms, I felt stinging in my eyes. The sadness was mixed with anger-anger for the tears I had such a hard time fighting back, anger for not being able to control my anger, anger for the world that so coldly took my mate...I so strongly wished that my mother had not sent me into the underworld knowing that Rin would die. It was because of that event that my mask was so difficult to keep on. Part of me also wished I had not met this woman who had taken me as a whole, that I did not feel for her as I did. I would not be pained like this if she had never existed, or if she had never been in the same area of the forest as I had.

At least I had something to think about that I was able to lose myself in-it saved me from having to suffer through the droll topics that my brother and his priestess spoke about.

We finally arrived at our destination after a day and a half. I looked at my mother boldy as I had the last time we had locked our glares, though by the expression playing in her eyes-and her glances at the corpse in my arms-she knew I had troubles and had come to her seeking assistance in rectifying them. Though, her curiosity got the better of her and she bluntly fired out words so to find out what and who trespassed in her home.

"A dead human, a live human, and a half human. None of which accompanied you last time. Your heart grows each day, I see." Her eyes laid heavily on Inuyasha. "At least I can see that you bear no ill will towards any of your family. What is it you wish from me of this day? I'm assuming you have not come to just visit mother?"

Inuyasha and Kagome let out small gasps, but said nothing as they took in the fact that my mother stood before them. "I need you to bring the soul of this human back from the underworld."

My mother stood from her chair and approached, her eyes not moving from my mate's lifeless body. "Who is she to you?" she asked, running a nail through one of Stacey's curls. I felt a growl escape me-I did not like it that she touched my mate, though I was unsure as to why. She smiled at me playfully however, and put her hand down back by her side. "Oh," she continued. "I can tell she is your mate, then. Like father like son, I suppose." She turned and walked back to her seat. "However, I am unable to help you this time."

"What!" I exclaimed angrily, feeling myself losing my temper. "Explain!"

"I'm assuming that by coming to me for assistance in reviving her that you have already used the Tensaiga to revive her once, correct?"

"No," I answered. "I used it on her only the once-trying to revive her immediately after she passed-but she did not wake."

My mother gave me the most puzzled look she could muster, which was not much by any other's standard. For certain, the priestess and my brother were unaware of her expression change, though I could see my own expressions in her. "How odd," she said. "She is very much in tact...she seems a perfect candidate for Tensaiga." She rose from her chair once more and approached, this time being careful not to touch my mate. She put her face very close to her though, and I bit back the growl I felt building in the back of my throat. "Her scent is so strikingly familiar." She kept her close quarters to continually inhale Stacey's sweet scent until surprised recognition crossed her face. "This...this girl. I know this girl. I remember her. I would know that scent anywhere, there is none like it!"

"You...know Stacey?" Inuyasha's priestess asked, surprised. "How do you know her?"

"She is a Caliri!" my mother nearly howled. "Long, long ago-long before almost anyone alive today were thought of-your father and I had just met and were spending time with one another. We found this girl dead along the banks of a large stream. Your father took pity and brought her back to life with Tensaiga. She was very grateful-which surprised us, seeing as her kind were very hateful-though we never heard from her again. We both assumed that, being one of the very last of her kind, she either went into hiding and died of old age or was killed. That was thousands of years ago!"

I could feel my mind slowly process what my mother was saying. "This is not the same girl," I said. "This is her reincarnation."

My mother shook her head. "That is why the Tensaiga will not work on her then. If this is the reincarnation of the girl your father saved, the soul may not be in the same body, but it is still the same soul. It was brought back into a body from the netherworld once already, and Tensaiga will not bring it back again."

The weight of her words were like whole worlds on my shoulders. I would not fail Stacey any more. If I got her back, there would be no more options to bring her back. There would be no reviving her any more after that. "You must help me," I nearly begged, trying hard to hide the tone in my voice. The priestess and Inuyasha surely could not define the desperation in my voice, though I was certain my mother heard it quite well. "I cannot live without her."

My mother's expression softened somewhat, and pity was written on her face. "Again, I am unable to assist you in bringing your mate's soul back. Your father left me the stone for the sole purpose of helping your understanding of Tensaiga grow. To have to ask this of me shows that the lesson did not get to you as well as I hoped it would."

I lost all grip on my emotions then, and it was all I had not to transform and tear my mother limb from limb in the rush of them. Tears flowed from my eyes uncontrollably, for which I was ashamed to have my mother witness, but I could feel the outraged expression on my face. "You have never known this feeling!" I growled at her, trying to keep from screaming. "You keep yourself away from others, so you know not what love is! Not the love I feel for this woman. The pain I have inside of me for this girl's loss is more than you will ever know. If I am unable to being her back, then I fully plan to meet her in the underworld, and I do not plan to come back."

My mother took in my emotional display with utter shock, unable to speak for quite some time. "There is one way that I know of to bring her back," my mother said slowly. "But this is the only time you will be able to do it. You have one shot, so you must listen to my instructions very carefully and be prompt."

"Anything," I immediately responded. "Just tell me now. It may be too late if we go much longer!"

"Very well." She removed the stone from around her neck. I knew that she kept it because it reminded her of father, even if it was useless now. "You must use Tensaiga to strike the stone. In doing so, the stone will be destroyed to create a final portal to the underworld. I know not where it will take you, but you must make your way to where you slew the Guardian of the Underworld. Her soul will be within the portal that lays there-it is where souls are stored. There will be many there, and you may not be able to find it. Once you enter that portal, the Tensaiga will only have so long before it destroys itself. When it does, you have exactly ten minutes before the Tensaiga's portal closes and you will be stuck in the underworld for all eternity. So you must act swiftly."

"That doesn't sound too hard," Inuyasha added. "I'm sure with three of us it shouldn't be too hard to find her." His words reminded me of how even with my sense of where she was, I was not able to find Stacey in time before it was too late.

"That is not all," my mother said. "To bring back a soul from beyond the door that keeps them, you must bring a replacement soul. If the three of you go in, then one of you must stay for the Caliri's soul to exit."

"I'll stay," Inuyasha said immediately. "She's supposed to be the turning point for our world. I'll give myself up and hope that whatever it is she does is for the better."

"No," I said. "I will stay. If it means that my mate will live, I will die for that purpose."

My mother gave me a look that told me she knew something that I did not, and she set the stone on the ground before her. Without stopping to question it, I struck the stone with Tensaiga.

The dark portal opened on the ground in the wake of the stone's shattering. I was the first one to jump in, and I knew that Inuyasha and the priestess followed. I had been in that forsaken place once before, so I took the lead. It was not as if we could get lost-the one path was not hard to follow, unless one wished to jump into the darkness either side of the path dropped into.

A few moments of walking and we entered the familiar total darkness that ended up at the large pile of corpses that guarded the portal. It still sucked hungrily, as it had before, wanting more souls. I led by example and let the current take me, and assumed Inuyasha and the priestess did the same.

Through this portal was what I did not know would hold, though for a moment I though it had regurgitated us back into the world of the living.

It was almost a mirror world of our own, with trees and forest life, a blue sky and streams. The only difference was that everything in this world was slightly transparent, like you would expect a walking spirit to look like.

I turned to address the priestess and Inuyasha, in hopes that they had thought of a plan on the way to the portal, but I came up short when I noticed the fourth member of our group, and I was immediately angry.

"Rin," I said harshly, hoping that she understood the gravity of what she had done. How had I not noticed her trailing us?

The priestess and my brother turned, astonished expressions on their faces. They would have not let her follow if they had known she was there.

"I'm sorry, My Lord," she answered meekly. "I know you must be angry. But I had to come."

Obviously, she did not have to come. Though she was a child, and I assumed it would be futile to convince her otherwise. "You do not leave my side," I ordered her. She nodded in understanding and skipped to my side. She was happy that I let her stay, though I doubt she knew that there was one-and only one-exit that would be open for a limited time.

"Two teams?" the priestess asked, seeing that Rin and I's short discussion was done.

I nodded, taking Tensaiga out of its sheath and thrusting it into the transparent earth. I noticed stars far off beneath the shimmery grass, almost as if outside of this place was the sky itself. "We meet back here every ten minutes," I instructed. "If the portal is open, you must go ahead and leave. I will search until the very last moment. Hopefully we will find her. If you find her, however, wait here for me so I know that she is found."

The two of them nodded in understanding and took off. I gathered Rin into my arms and took off as well.

I checked back at Tensaiga about sixteen times, running into the other two only three times (with reports of no luck each time), before I came back to an open portal on the seventeenth time. I set Rin down by the portal and ordered her to stay there until the other two came back, and if they exited the portal she was to exit with them.

I bound off and frantically searched through the trees, not even seeing a single soul. I hadn't run into any the entire time I was in that place.

I gave myself at the most a count of eight minutes in case I was off a few seconds, and I dejectedly made my way back to the portal after having no luck.

But Stacey was here somewhere, so I would send everyone back and remain in the underworld and spend eternity either searching for her or with her.

Emotions overcame me as I bound into the clearing to see my brother, the priestess and Rin. What made me burst into tears, however, was Stacey's ethereal form standing with them. She looked just like she did when she died in my arms-bloody, pale, ripped clothing.

I ran to her and put my arms around her. I expected to go right through her, but she was plenty solid. She responded by putting her arms around me and sobbing as well.

"I'm sorry," I could barely get out. "I'm so, so sorry. It was my fault you died."

She put her hands on either side of my head and made me look at her transparent face. "No, it isn't," she sobbed. "Don't ever think it was your fault. I will never forgive you if you go on thinking it was your fault. I will resent you forever. It's okay now, though. We'll have forever to spend together now." She smiled up at me ignorantly, letting me know I had done no wrong, that I was forgiven for hurting her. Some part of me wished that Inuyasha or the priestess had informed her that I would not be accompanying her-so I wouldn't have to lie. Though I knew that she would refuse to be revived if she knew I would not revive with her.

"Yes," I lied, letting my tears be mistaken for happiness at her forgiveness. "Now hurry and go, we only have but a minute!"

Stacey gave me a kiss, and I made it the most worthwhile, loving kiss I could give her. And then she stepped back into her life, and that one step broke me in half. But I knew it was for the best.

Inuyasha and the priestess followed right behind her, and it left Rin and I. "Go on," I told her, turning my face to the stone slab I knew she was used to. "You need to go first."

"I know you love Stacey very much," she said, catching me off guard. "She's a very important person in the world. But you know, you're just as important to that prophecy as she is."

Her words were much more cryptic and wise than I knew of her. "I know Rin. Now hurry up and go so I can follow you."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. You'll see when the time comes, I guess. But I want you to know that I appreciate all you have done for me. I know you love me. But I know you don't love me as much as you love her. It won't be as hard to lose me as it would be to lose her, which I know is what you're trying to do, to leave her all alone." She caught me off guard again by giving me a hug. "I love you, Lord Sesshomaru."

I was about to pat her on the back awkwardly and tell her once more to jump into the portal, but she quickly kicked me in the back of my knee. It made me crumple and stumble forward into the portal.

And then I was laying on the ground of the living world, watching the portal to the underworld disintegrate, with Rin still in it.


	11. Chapter 11

Just as soon as my vision had dimmed, I was awake and in a forest just like the one I found myself in after I climbed out of that well. I was all alone, laying in sun-warmed grass with the sounds of nature all around me. It was nice, but it felt off. Like there was something missing from me.

I looked down at myself and saw I was wearing the same tattered kimono I had before my captor had taken it off of me. I was still covered in blood and dirt and urine. But I didn't necessarily feel dirty. It was kind of like when you spill kool-aid on the counter, and if you don't wipe it up quick enough it stains the counter. It would be clean, it was just stained. It was almost as if my death was stained on me.

Which made me remember my death. My final seconds of consciousness replayed in my mind, Sesshomaru's face hovering over me. I believed his words. I didn't question that he was not the one who tortured me until death, that he was sorry for hurting me. I still loved him, and I found that his apology was all I needed to diffuse the anger I had for his actions.

Somehow, the feeling of sadness would not come. It was as if this place warranted no negative feelings. I doubted that, even if I wanted to be, I couldn't be angry at Sesshomaru. But all I was able to harbor were the positive feelings I had for him-love, lust, happiness.

I sat there for what seemed like hours. I was perfectly content just staring at the greenery motionless. No feeling of hunger ever came over me, and I never got the urge to use the bathroom. It was so nice, every once in awhile I would forget that I was dead and have to remind myself. The only thing I really wondered about, though, is how uncrowded it was in this place. I always pictured the afterlife with more people to spend it with.

I heard the faint calling of my name after a long while. It snapped me out of my thoughtless state, filling me with the feeling that I needed to move away from the voice. I stood up slowly and moved away from it mechanically, like it was instinct.

It became a routine, however. I would hear my name being called for a short period, and I would move away from it until it ceased. But not too long after the calling died down, it would start back up again and I would move away from it once more.

I think it was somewhere around the twentieth time the calling started that I stopped for a moment and really analyzed what I was doing. If someone was calling my name, they had to know me. Why would I move away from someone that knew me?

The instinctual feeling of moving away from the voice paralyzed me as I tried to turn and go towards it. It was almost like a nightmare, really. Finally, I got frustrated and remembered that I had my voice, and called out. "Who's there?" I yelled out, hopefully loud enough so that the person calling my name could hear.

"Stacey?" they replied questioningly. "It's Kagome!"

And just like that, my body had become unglued. Strange, really. I didn't understand what that was about.

I flitted through the trees, continuing to call for Kagome and she for me as I tried to find her. I eventually ran into both her and Inuyasha. I took them in, and noticed that they seemed out of place in this world. Almost as if they were thicker than they should be. In the words of the Mad Hatter, they seemed much more much-y.

"Are you guys dead now too?" I asked hopefully, wanting some companions. I thought it was stupid to ask that, because obviously they wouldn't be there if they weren't.

"No. We've come to get you out of here and bring you back to life."

Well. I guess that works too.

"Sounds good," I replied evenly, not even questioning it. "Lead the way."

I followed them through the woods, a sense of urgency about the speed with which we travelled. I wanted to be worried about the looks on their faces, but found that I could not feel that emotion either. There was something wrong, and I wanted to know what it was. But something kept me from asking.

We finally arrived at a circular portal opening that floated in mid-air. It featured a beautiful castle, and it almost looked like a painting. But of course I knew it wasn't. It was very plainly an opening to somewhere else, being so out of place in this forest. Rin waited patiently by it, and her face lit up when she saw us. It wavered slightly when she saw me, and I had no doubt it was because of the way I looked. None the less, she ran up to us and nearly tackled me to the ground with a hug.

"Are you in pain?" she asked me, picking at the shreds of my kimono. "You don't look too good."

"I'm not in any pain," I told her, awkwardly putting my arms around her. I was not very close to her so it was odd that she would hug me. It would not have been so weird if she actually acted and thought like the child she was, but I knew she was advanced beyond her years. "You end up here like how you died. So you're reminded that you're dead, I guess."

She snuggled into me. "At least you're okay. I love you!"

I was caught off guard with that. "I...love you too?"

She beamed up at me before releasing me to examine the portal, then cast a glance to the woods, where Sesshomaru promptly exited. I had not actually thought I would see him here for some reason. I should have expected it since Rin was here, though. It just never crossed my mind.

Pure happiness and joy flooded me at the sight of him, and all the love I had for him hit me harder than a rocket would. I couldn't help but paste a stupid, goofy grin on my face as I tried to manage my emotions, but it was like this place wouldn't let me feel what I wanted to.

His own face twisted into a mixture of such pure joy and love that tears started rolling from his eyes. It was almost like he had spent his entire life looking for me, and now that he had found me, he couldn't contain his joy.

He ran to me, wrapping his arms around me tightly. He sobbed into my hair, and I sobbed back just as hard. At least this place would let me cry from happiness.

"I'm sorry," Sesshomaru choked out. "I'm so, so sorry. It was my fault you died."

I put my hands on either side of his head to make him look at me, so that he could take me seriously. "No, it isn't," I told him, sniffling as I tried to steady my voice. "Don't ever think it was your fault. I will never forgive you if you go on thinking it was your fault. I will resent you forever. It's okay now, though. We'll have forever to spend together now."

Sesshomaru added new emotions to the expression on his face. I could tell that he was relieved I had forgiven him, that I still loved him-but there was a sadness there, a foreboding that I could not place. Just like I had felt with Inuyasha and Kagome, there was something wrong. The world still wouldn't let me ask what it was, like it knew it would send me over the edge, that whatever it was would make me have so much negative energy that it wouldn't be able to suppress it, and it found just steering me away from it altogether was simpler and easier.

"Yes," Sesshomaru agreed, tears of happiness at my forgiveness flowing out of his eyes. "Now hurry and go, we only have but a minute!"

I gave him a kiss, and he returned it with more passion and love than I had ever felt. But there was great sadness though, and finally some negative feelings began to creep up on me. Suspicion, fear, sadness.

We broke apart, and I gave him a smile before turning and stepping into the portal.

At first I was confused, because all of a sudden I was staring at the sky. I couldn't help but let out a scream in terror, not knowing where I was. Was I falling from the sky?

Then I gasped and gulped in the air, like I had been suffocating. My entire body was sore, particularly my back, head and lungs. But I remembered that I had been dead, and that now I was alive, and that was why I ached so badly. I wonder how much worse the pain would be if I had been dead longer? But it brought me to a final question: where was I?

A flood of words came into my mind then. It stemmed from my headache and then just exploded into a jumble of voices. It was as if I had fallen into a room filled with thousands of people that were talking all at once. I grabbed my head, the movement tearing at my back, and screamed.

I flailed around frantically, the pain from the voices growing like each voice was a person taking up space in my skull. I felt hands grabbing me to try and settle me, but I knocked them away in my frantic attempts at trying to claw away the pain.

"Go away!" I screamed at all the voices. "Leave me alone!"

And just like that, the voices ceased. There was absolute silence in my mind for the first time since I woke up and found myself with Sesshomaru. There was no static and no voice but my own.

I panted and took in my surroundings as I settled from my fit. Inuyasha, Kagome and Sesshomaru all hovered over me, holding my body and limbs down to the ground in case I broke into another fit. I felt cold, though I was laying in a pool of something hot.

I couldn't help but stare up at Sesshomaru, at the mask that couldn't hide the emotions playing in his eyes. I so desperately wished I could know his thoughts, though as I wished so they came. It was like a private channel to his mind opened up, and thoughts and feelings and events that he had throughout his entire life flashed before me.

The group's grip on me tightened as I gasped and bucked into the air. Marvelous places I had never even dreamed of came into my mind, though there were also horrible scenes of death and murder at Sesshomaru's own hands. In just an instant, I knew everything he had seen, felt and done in his life, and my understanding of him finally came. The mental slideshow slowed into his current thoughts, and I found myself outraged at what he had been planning to do. Though the sadness of Rin's loss overwhelmed me, particularly because she had sacrificed herself to save both Sesshomaru and I. I owed her a debt I could never repay.

The three of them finally decided that I wouldn't freak out anymore and slowly let me free. I struggled to sit myself up through the pain, but when I finally did, the first thing I did was reach out and slap Sesshomaru as hard as I could manage. Inuyasha and Kagome gasped, but Sesshomaru took it numbly. Which actually pissed me off and made me want to just beat him to death.

"What the fuck!" I screamed at him, all of the negative feelings that the afterlife wouldn't let me experience coming back with a vengeance. "You were going to leave me here in this world all by myself?! How dare you think I would let that happen!" I slapped him again. "I would have hated you forever for doing that! I would have just killed myself again so I wouldn't have to suffer without you!" I sobbed as I thought about his plan more. "Why would you do that?" I whispered it to him, hoping that maybe he wouldn't hear the pain I felt for it. "Why would you be that cruel?"

Sesshomaru did not answer me. He was too caught up in the grief of losing Rin. All he did was put his arms around me, and all I could do was return the embrace as my anger flooded out of me.

He lifted me into his arms, needing my warmth against him to keep his emotions in check. He would not let his emotions get the better of him anymore, but something about my presence soothed him so much. He needed me now for more than he ever had before. Not only that, but he no longer had Tensaiga to bring life back. He sacrificed his treasured weapon to save me. And now he lost the only other person besides me that he loved. And it was all my fault.

"Why could you have not used Meido Zangetsuha?" I asked him, trying to think of any other way to have gone about bringing me back. "Couldn't you have gone to the netherworld with that ability?"

"No," a woman that looked strikingly like Sesshomaru said, and from Sesshomaru's memories I knew it was his mother. "Meido Zangetsuha is an ability that sucks enemies directly into the hell of the underworld. The portal within the netherworld that is usually guarded by a spirit is a sorter. Good souls go to 'heaven', or a neutral ground that mirrors our own world without its plights. Bad souls are eternally damned in 'hell'. There is also a third plane, though it is strictly for the most pure souls. Not many know about it, though some say that the the souls of those people are the stars themselves. Anyhow, Meido Zangetsuha bypasses the portal and goes straight to hell. While Sesshomaru could have entered if he wished, it would have been useless in bringing you back as your soul was in the plane of Heaven."

Sesshomaru's grip tightened around me. "You knew Rin was there. And you let her follow, knowing she would sacrifice herself."

The woman put a hand to her forehead in mock concern. "You don't think it pains me to see my son lose someone he views as a child?" Her expression turned serious as her eyes locked with mine. "She is far more important to you than that child was, and you know it. She knew it as well. That child sacrificed herself because she knew the importance this woman has in this world, not only to you, my son, but to everyone else. In the breaking of the Meido stone, I was shown her true importance. It is not for me to say what it is, but soon the events will unfold and it will be revealed to you as well. Have not a heavy heart for the loss of a loved one, but joy in having the one you cherish most and air in your lungs. Now you must go and seek out the Cave of Despair."

"Well, that sounds like a fun place," Inuyasha said sarcastically, trying to break through the tension.

Sesshomaru was still upset with his mom over the loss of Rin, but he knew that she was right. He was alive, and he still had me. And there was a more important task at hand.

"What will we find there?" he asked coldly. His expression was a rock now, and there would be no more breaking of it. Rin's death would see to that. Though his emotions on the inside would roil more than ever, he knew that I was able to see into his mind now, and that would be enough for him to know that one other person would always know how he felt.

"You will see when you arrive. Head east now, towards the ocean. On the coast is where you'll find your destination."

"I'm not going to get kidnapped again, am I?" I asked nervously, Sesshomaru's grip on me tightening even further as I locked my arms around his neck. I wouldn't get kidnapped again unless Sesshomaru died first. He wasn't even going to let me out of his arms. Which sucked, because lack of exercise would make me even fatter.

A smile played on her lips. I so desperately wished I could see into her mind, but there was some kind of wall that wouldn't let me. "This is more for the benefit of another than for you," she said, not really answering my question.

"Is that a yes?"

She let out a soft laugh and waved us off, transforming into a large white dog and taking off into the sky.

I didn't like how she didn't give me a straight answer. It's never good when they don't come right out and tell you.

To keep my mind off of the potential kidnapping that lay ahead of me as we traveled back to the village first, I snooped deep into my cohorts' minds. There was a lot of deep emotional stuff between Kagome and Inuyasha and some dead lady named Kikyo, who was actually Kaede's older sister and the owner of the new kimono I finally had noticed I was wearing. I felt kind of weird wearing the clothes of a dead person, particularly because I had died once already. And that it was already poetically stained with blood.

When we arrived at the village, Kaede greeted us. She was overjoyed to see that I was alive, but dismayed that the blood from the cuts on my back (which had reopened upon my resurrection) had ruined the beautiful kimono she had given me. She immediately removed it from me for cleaning, and Sesshomaru took the top of his kimono off so that I wasn't naked.

Kagome was the one that treated my wounds with ointments made by Kaede, while Kaede herself was out washing my kimono. I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't magically healed upon being revived, but I guess beggars can't be choosers.

We were all ordered by Kaede to stay in the village that night so I could rest some before the three day journey to the coast. It would also give Kaede enough time to make up some ointments that could be used for my wounds. Sesshomaru was told not to give me any more blood, in case that it had some long term negative effects that we didn't know about. I hadn't ever thought about it having negative effects until then, and it made me a little afraid to drink it anymore. But it was just so wonderful, it was hard to wrap my mind around the fact I wouldn't have it anymore.

After I was cleaned and my wounds were dressed, Kaede handed me my newly cleaned yukata. I wanted to wear Sesshomaru's top for a little longer, however, because my time in the underworld made me realize how much I missed him, and I wanted to inhale his scent and feel the warmth of his fabrics as much as possible in case I died again.

No one had any quarrel with that decision for the time being, so Kaede showed Sesshomaru and I to a small hut just for the two of us. I knew Kagome had convinced Kaede that Sesshomaru and I needed to be alone after the events leading up to (and resulting from) my resurrection, and I mentally thanked her profusely. I didn't think I had telekinesis, but it was better than nothing.

By the time Sesshomaru and I lay down in our little home, it was the sunset of the second day of my resurrected life. The fact settled with me awkwardly, and I knew that my feelings were spilling into Sesshomaru as he pulled me on top of him. I was still afraid of crushing him with my weight, even though I knew he could probably handle a couple tons, but old habits die hard. He kissed my forehead as he chuckled at my absurd feelings, and I decided at that moment that if I lived through whatever it was I was meant to do in this world, I wouldn't try to go back to my family. I would stay here with Sesshomaru and the complete love I had for him. I admit that going back to my home time was something that was lodged in the back of my mind, but now it was just some absurd nightmare. This was my home now.

I sat myself up on top of him and looked into his eyes. There was a stray ray of orange light peeking into the hut, and it lay right on his eyes and made them sparkle like pure gold. They were entrancing and beautiful (even if yellow was my least favorite color), and I leaned down and kissed him on the lips. He returned it hungrily, having missed this intimate contact with me. An image went through his mind after we broke apart, and I knew that he was mentally asking me for my permission. I laughed quietly, almost astounded that we were actually going to try it again, though I kissed him again as silent approval.

Sesshomaru moved his lips to my neck, sucking hungrily and to my liking. I could feel my own pleasure roll into him through the bite mark on my neck, as I knew that meant I was his mate and it let him feel what I felt, and feeling my own pleasure be his pleasure made my own increase. It was an infinitely growing cycle.

He finally put his lips on my bite mark, and such pleasure shot through me, I thought surely that I was actually still dead and that this was some heavenly, unheard of reward. But it was just the bond that I had been bestowed, the benefit of having a demon mate. And being able to see into Sesshomaru's mind and feel my own pleasure there mixed with his, it was a bliss far more intense than his blood would ever give me. I wanted this more than I wanted to live.

I let out a loud noise of pleasure, and Sesshomaru stopped. He thought he had hurt me for a moment-but it was just the opposite. He studied my feelings through the mark a moment as I panted into his chest, making sure I was okay, before making me sit up so he could slowly remove his top that I wore. I studied his mind as he took in my naked body so I knew what he really thought of me.

Tears rolled down my face as I looked at myself through his eyes and felt the emotions he felt. I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, I was perfection to him. The softness of my skin was so wonderful, the healthy, human glow that it had was so enticing, it was irresistible.

I felt so much better knowing he felt the same way I felt about him, and I nearly ripped off his undershirt so that I could feel myself against him. We lay motionless in an embrace for a few moments, taking in how we felt against one another, before he gently lay me on my back so that my wounds would not reopen. He then took off his pants, and finally we were able to experience one another in the most intimate way possible.

He ran his tongue over the mark on my neck as he worked his way in and out. Being a virgin, it was painful at first-particularly because he was so big. I always used tampons, so I was used to having something there, but it was nothing compared to this. It was a good pain, though, and mixed with the extra pleasure from my mark, it was the absolute most wonderful experience I had ever had, and I pitied everyone from my time that could not have it.

He began pounding me hard, and I felt my muscles begin to spasm and finally I orgasmed. The pleasure I could feel from Sesshomaru as I tightened around him was immense, and he orgasmed along with me. I could feel his juice mix with mine, and as the pleasure faded, it gave way to perfect contentedness.

Sesshomaru rolled back onto his back, and he gently lay me back onto him and we lay there in each others arms for an hour or so before falling asleep like that, happy to have one another.


	12. Chapter 12

**Ch 12**

When I woke up, I found myself already dressed and on the road. I was in Sesshomaru's arms, who trailed behind Inuyasha and Kagome, and Sango and another man that had joined the group followed behind us. From Sango (who I discovered had a very tragic past), I learned that his name was Miroku, and that his story was just as sad as the others'. Everyone here seemed to just have had a really hard life. It was kind of depressing. I thought my life had been bad!

A hanging thought from Kagome made me very embarrassed though. She knew what Sesshomaru and I had done the previous night, and I couldn't help but blush and hide my face in Sesshomaru's shirt.

"We need to stop now," Sesshomaru said suddenly. He wanted us to sit down and have lunch and reapply the ointment to my wounds.

The group turned to him, a little startled that he spoke so suddenly. He had been completely silent the entire trip (it was almost noon then, and we had set off at first light-and I was appalled I had slept straight through that long, though I knew it was because I was exhausted from having my soul thrust back into my lifeless body), so they had not thought him to speak any. Though they saw that I had finally woken up, and they didn't question his order.

We had some fruits, vegetables, bread and cheese to eat. Since I had come back to life, I had a hard time keeping my food down, and I threw up the small bites of bread I ate only a few moments after it went down. Kaede called it "resurrection sickness" and said that it would last up to a week, so I would be very weak until it ended. The others were extremely worried, though, and hoped that I would be able to make it that long without getting my sustenance. I assured myself that I would. I could stand to lose a couple pounds.

Regardless, I hated throwing up. It was the one thing that actually made me sick-I always got queasy around people if they vomited, and seeing my own just made me want to keep throwing up. Sesshomaru sensed this feeling in me, so his own worry was far greater than the others. Of course, his stone face would never reveal that. He knew there was nothing he could do, though, and he just cradled me in his arms and pulled my hair back when the vomiting started.

Tiny demons of all shapes and sizes would flock to me when I vomited though, lapping up whatever food I regurgitated. It. Was. So. Gross. I would have to throw up and immediately turn away to keep myself from feeling overly sick from watching them eat my chunky vomit. The others would try to shoo them away before they started, but eventually they learned that they wouldn't be killed for this scavenging and ignored their attempts, even when Inuyasha drew his oversized sword.

All in all, it was a miserable trip to the coast that left me weak and disoriented, even though Sesshomaru carried me the entire way. Somewhere through the trip, Jaken had found and rejoined us. When he was met with silence on the whereabouts of Rin and he realized that she was gone permanently, he started bawling from overwhelming sadness. He claimed to be shedding the tears that Sesshomaru could not, and I mentally laughed at that.

Even with Jaken's constant complaining and questioning about Sesshomaru taking up company with all the humans and his despised half-brother, I was conked out the whole trip from exhaustion and no food.

I woke up when I heard the sound of crashing waves on sand, however, and was amazed to see a beach that looked exactly like the one I was used to from back home. The waters were the same shade of greenish-clear near the shore where it was shallow, and it fettered off into a bright aqua blue. I was astounded to see how different the east coast of Japan looked before all the pollution. It made me sad for the environment.

Sesshomaru set me down so I could walk myself to the shoreline, though he aided me some in keeping me standing. Plus, he wasn't letting his hands off of me anymore anyway.

The water was freezing, though I expected that with how cold it had been the past couple weeks. It was still nice though, and the smell of sea salt made me feel at home.

The sun was high in the sky at this point, and it's light reflected off of the water in a way that made it hard for me to see, and I relented in its brightness and let Sesshomaru collect me back into his arms.

"Which way now?" Kagome asked, looking up and down the coast. The sand that we stood on gave way to rocky cliffs a few miles down one way, though the flat beach stretched on and on in the other direction.

"Well, if it's a cave we're looking for, I do believe that it would be over towards the cliffs," Miroku said wisely.

I slept more as we traveled down the coast, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore lulling me into a light slumber. I dreamed a little, but my sleep was light enough that it involved the conversation that the group was having as I rested. Miroku and Sango talked about their children while having tea, wondering if they were okay back at the village with Kaede. Some thoughts from the others leaked into my mind as well, since in sleep I wasn't able to filter my spiritual power. Kaede sat in a corner, a somber look on her face as she let the news of Rin's death sink in-though I was unsure of who's mind that thought came from. She had gotten very attached to Rin in the years she had spent with the young girl, though she understood her decision.

Inuyasha and Kagome actually chatted about starting a family of their own as well, which is about the time that I stirred. The air had grown cold and the light of the sun had left us. I snuggled into Sesshomaru's chest for warmth as I cracked open an eye to see what was going on. The group had gone silent as they took in the expanse of the cave as well.

We were in a single large cavern. Pools of water dotted the floor, and they were all linked to the ocean itself, and it was how the cave was illuminated. The pools gave off a soft aqua glow, the shimmer from the water's surface making the cavern walls have silver dancing designs. The air smelled pure, even if it was freezing, and salty. On the far side of the cavern was a single tunnel that stretched back into darkness. While it looked ominous and foreboding, I couldn't help but think it couldn't possibly lead to anything harmful. Surely this wasn't the cave of despair?

Without another word, the entire group all moved at once. They all knew that the tunnel was our destination-they all felt it calling to them. I didn't, but I could feel it from all of them. I actually felt kind of left out...

Soon, darkness enveloped us and it came to the point where I couldn't see anything. I became alarmed when everyone's minds started fading from me, almost like they were all disappearing into nothingness. Within seconds I was mentally cut off from everyone, and I was left with silence and Sesshomaru's caress. And then suddenly that was gone as well, and I was sitting in a plush bed that lay in a small cavern dimly lit with candles.

"Oh. My. Fucking. God. And again with the kidnapping."

"No, never kidnapped," whispered a soft voice.

"We don't kidnap," a second voice growled, almost as harsh as the other voice wasn't.

"We simply take you from them as a test," the first voice began explaining.

"Yes," the second agreed. "We are with you one hundred percent, but we must do our duty before we allow you to use us."

A weird ghostly figure appeared before me in the candle light. It was a person for sure, but they had two heads and four arms. The left side of the body had an angry red tinge, and the head was literally on fire, almost like the flames were his hair. The right side was a whispy shade of white, kind of like smoke. Thankfully this head had no hair at all, and I wondered if the left head even knew his head was covered in fire.

"I am the spirit of air," the white side introduced himself.

"And I," the red side said, an angry look permanently plastered on his face. "Am fire."

"I'm not going to die, am I?"

Fire and Air laughed together, the whimsical sound of air and the raspy chortle of fire making an odd but pleasurable symphony. "No," air said quietly. "We must test your companions."

"Yes," Fire agreed. "We must make sure that they are the ones needed to protect you until the time is right."

"They must be willing to sacrifice everything they have in order to save everything else as we know it," Air finished.

"But...I'm confused. I'm supposed to SAVE the world?"

"Yesssss..." Air hissed.

"You are the only thing that is going to stop evil from obliterating everything," Fire growled.

"...but I'm that evil, aren't I? In deciding the fate of the world."

Fire and Air chuckled in unison again, the sound echoing off of the rocky walls ominously. "You are what is deciding the fate of the world, yessss," Air Whispered.

"But," Fire continued. "You are not the evil one of the prophecy. You are not the princess reincarnate. You are everything."

"Okay," I said slowly. "I know spirits are supposed to be ominous and everything, but I'm blonde. I don't mean to make fun of myself, but blonde people get confused REALLY easy. So, like, if you could tell me EXACTLY what that means with really simple words, I would be thankful."

"You are the spirit of everything that lives," Air murmured, almost as if getting lost in a wonderful thought. "You are everything that gives life. You are earth, you are spirit, you are water, you are us. Before, we were all separate. But with the prophecy nearing fulfillment, the only way for everything to keep existing is us to become one..."

"You are the physical embodiment of us, the elements. You are a physical being created for us to come together. Without us, you would not exist. You began with spirit, and earth joined you immediately after. Then water came to you. And now, it is time for us to join as well."

"But we are unused to being together," Air chipped in. "Fire and I have been joined as one since the beginning of time. Without air, there cannot be fire. However, we do not mingle with the other elements well. As you learn to use our power, us becoming harmonious, you need protection. You are not whole yet. In order to survive, you need those that are willing to sacrifice everything they have in order to keep you alive so you can fight that which wishes existence to end."

I stared at the two of them for a bit, letting their words sink in so I could try and understand. "Okay, so this is what I got from that: I'm not me?"

"You have your own spirit," Fire growled. "Don't be stupid. You're like any other human in that way. But you have a unique soul, molded by the element of Spirit herself. Your soul was created specifically so that it could contain all of the elements without breaking. We are volatile spirits when mixed together, so we could not use a soul that already existed. You have never lived a life before, in that you are not a reincarnation. It took a long time for Spirit to perfect your soul for us-that is why you were born in the time you grew up in. But you are linked to this time because of your purpose, and your fate brought you to the well of time."

"I can still have kids and get married and crap, right?" I asked quickly.

"If you live through the task you were meant to carry out," Air answered.

"Oh thank God," I said, falling back into the blankets. As long as I could have kids, I was good.

Air and Fire turned from me abruptly and gracefully floated over to a cluttering of candles on the other side of the cave-room. As I came to the realization that they had no legs, just a wispy bottom kind of like a genie would have, the flames of the candles exploded upward. The flames reached almost to the ceiling, and in the center of the flames, five different images appeared. Each image had one of my friends on it, and they all lay sleeping in darkness.

It made me panic to see Sesshomaru lay in a crumpled heap, but I was unable to lift myself because I was so weak from being malnourished. I couldn't even save the person I love more than anything. How would I be able to save the world?

"Calm yourself, woman," Fire spat without even throwing me a glance. "No harm will come to them. As long as they pass our tests..."

I let out a squeal of dismay just as Kagome began waking up, signaling the beginning of her trial of worth.


End file.
